I remember when I was eleven years old the power to imagine my way into other worlds was abruptly leaving me and I did NOT like it. I tried so hard to hold on to that wonderful ability to turn inanimate objects into my grand adventuring partners. I used to go boating across the living room sea in my cardboard ship under the stormy stucco sky and over to the island where my teddy crew and I would visit the Great Wise Mop Head. The "mop head" was a repurposed sculpture my parents had sitting in front of the fireplace. It was a gallon jug turned upside down and painted as a face, handle for a nose, and it had a big stringy head of dyed mop hair. I wasn't allowed to touch the sculpture but it didn't stop my imagination from finding a way to play with it! Everywhere I went I was enchanted by the smiling faces of artworks I saw, couches became industrial buildings, and nooks and crannies appeared as caves or elaborate mansions upon the hilltop. I really grieved the loss of all my secret worlds and the creatures that inhabited them.

I strived to find something, anything as powerful and intoxicating as the wild perception of childhood. It took me to some strange and dark places as a young person trying to find my way in our society which isn't exactly open to freedom of imagination in all areas. By the time I was finishing up my BA at the U of MN, I finally realized that creating and teaching art was my connection to those magical worlds.

Sometimes I honestly feel as if the creatures I sculpt are coming to me from the secret lands of childhood. That there is a literal bridge somewhere between those imaginary worlds and my hands and the sculptures are building themselves. They are making themselves known to us here on the "other" side and inviting us to come back, at least once in a while, and play.

By teaching workshops, facilitating birthday parties and conducting custom workshops for groups, I provide a safe space that's beneficial to the creative process and that will ignite each participant’s imagination.

My goal is to let kids and adults alike, be free to relish in and explore their imagination for a while in a world that so often forgets there are whole universes beyond our immediate senses to explore. Art making, especially something tactile like clay, is a very stress-free and brain-building experience.  Art doesn't have to be only for kids, and it doesn't have to be perfect for it to have lasting effects on our neuroplasticity and ability to innovate and increase our cognitive flexibility in other areas!

I demonstrate various basic techniques that each student Artist can personalize. Whether parties or group workshops take place in my studio or at your location, the results are good creative fun!