I believe that spending time in nature, enjoying its beauty, is important for the modern psyche. We are fascinated with organic objects like stones and pieces of coral; we pick them up and put them in our pockets and carry them to our contemporary homes. Yet the relationship between “nature” and modern ways of building and living are complicated. We take things from nature and leave things behind, and these additions and subtractions have lasting effects, so in exploring this relationship, take materials such as local clay, waste glazes, glass, and metal and fuse them together in the kiln, as I imagine the earth would do over time, in combination with more traditional materials. Parks and scenic landscapes seem natural and untouched, but often are manmade, planned, and built. We create the park in order to bring nature better into view, but attempt to hide our hand in constructing it. Similarly, it is sometimes the remnants of human past, manmade things like the ruins of an old barn or metal machinery encrusted with rust that appear most beautiful in the landscape view, which bring nature into view. It is relationships like these—the difference between human time and geologic time, between our conception of wildness and wilderness, permanence and impermanence, that are the focus of my work.