In smoke-firings I perform on places selected for their meaningful connection to history and time – including my ancestral lands in the Wisconsin Driftless, I collaborate with fire recording its traces on clay. These pieces are intimate in form and size. Some pieces go through multiple firings to achieve desired results.

Small vessels, “Beelzebub Charms”, are hand-pinched, and began as a process honoring the Solstice when family and friends gathered, placing messages of release, hopes, or dreams for the coming year inside the vessel and fired them in a festive celebration of rebirth.

The name “Beelzebub Charm” is a reclamation of a nickname my father had for me. “Beelzebub” is a moniker for the Devil while “Charm” draws on the positive power of fire to clean and heal. The work references the impact of fire in my own and my family’s history as well as the force of nature’s elements which we only control to some degree.

The sculptures are smoke-fired in small batches, fueled by materials gleaned from my collections and memorabilia - old family obituaries, notes, ephemera, seeds and sticks gathered on the site. I experiment with minerals and materials that lend color and tone. Chance and acceptance of what the process provides are important elements in the making.

These works are grounded in family and place, loss and attainment, & the cleansing power of fire, which features prominently both here and in my history. Powerful, terrible, formative, creative, fierce. Both in the life of my ancestors, and in my work.