In 2000, I moved to Elkins Park, Pennsylvania - just outside the city limits of Philadelphia. I went to study at Tyler School of Art, where I earned a BFA in Sculpture. At Tyler I had the opportunity to explore alot of materials and processes. It was a chance to cultivate my eclectic interests and have access to a wealth of tools and facilities. I originally went there to study glass, and I did so but decided it would not be my sole focus. Printmaking, ceramics, and small metals also captivated me, though I spent less time in those disciplines. As a sculpture major I learned more about wood, metal, mold-making, bronze-casting - seriously, this place was a playground for me. Working with metal on a large scale hit a nerve and I finished my degree with the conviction that I would continue to work with metal. A professor of mine directed me to a fabrication shop in the Frankford neighborhood of Philadelphia. In that shop I "cut my teeth" as a fabricator and finisher. It turns out I knew very little about metal at all when I graduated. This job, I would say, was formative. It became clear pretty quickly that working as a professional fabricator is remarkably different from making art in the sculpture shop. This is when the concept "time is money" really began to feel significant to me, for better or worse. This job illuminated alot for me as a maker. It certainly affirmed my absolute adoration for metal, and it also revealed that my meticulous, organized, and diplomatic nature makes me a great project manager. My best experience in all these years was working at Iron Studio (www.ironstudioltd.com). It's owned and run by a most talented and fantastic artist, teacher and mentor, and the crew there just can't be beat. I guess it might be a little obvious how I feel about metal. Isn't this a pottery website? Long story short, I've spent the past ten years working as a professional metal fabricator, while intermittently having a gardening business and a ceramics studio. It wasn't until early 2013 that I took a step away from metal and made the leap to start focusing much more of my energy on ceramics. |
I live and work in the Mt. Airy neighborhood of Philadelphia. My basement studio is flooded with natural light and I have a great view of the garden from where I work (so cliche for a potter). It's been a long and sometimes stilted process, but I've made my small studio work for me by building custom tables, shelves, and cabinets to use the space most efficiently. Having a modest but practically equipped woodshop certainly helps. Studio modification and improvement is one of my favorite productive distractions. As a metalworker I found relief in clay, and as a potter I find relief with any excuse to use a tape measure and use dangerous tools and build things. . . !! I recently purchased a much bigger kiln to assist the little Paragon that's hustled for me all this time. It seems I've squeezed every bit out of each square foot of the studio and I hope one day to expand into a more spacious studio. |