Ancestral Artistry

I am an artist. I have been working in clay for over 60 years, I have been integrated and engrossed in expressions of the matriarchal herstory. My heritage informs who I am and my studies. My past has been quite varied, working in media that include ink, pastels, digital, photography, watercolor, and painting. I have also been a Dancer, Factory Worker, Teacher, Lover, Mother, Illustrator, Organizer, Doula and Healer.

I studied at BauHaus in Chicago, the Walker Arts Center in Minneapolis, Giacomo Patri School of Art in San Francisco, College of Arts & Crafts in Oakland, as well as San Francisco City College and San Francisco State University. My background in painting and drawing comes together in my clay craft within studies of ancient history, which was largely recorded in clay. I have been developing techniques of painting, glazing, incising and the use of clay slips with and without glaze.

My process of creating becomes my surface of expression and is inspired by the ancient depictions of women as the creators of life. I then recreate—as a conversation around the heritage that has been buried by subsequent patriarchal “civil”-ization. I believe my work helps contemporary women make connections with their ancient spiritual herstory and their position of political, social and religious importance.

I have chosen the potter’s medium of earth, which is a craft originally practiced by women, and through these old symbols, new and future depictions are born—images of the primeval goddess/life bringer(s) are rendered as a continued practice in one of the oldest art forms—made up of the earth from which life itself arose. For myself, it is more than a metaphor for the origin of life—it is life itself.