I attended Oregon State University for 4 years both in the sciences and liberal arts fields before turning to art. In my fifth year I was undecided where to go next as, was my roommate, so we decided to take a ceramics class that he had taken in the past, and it stuck. We both made our living as potters for the next 25 years.
My pottery studio was always at my residence where I made all my clay and glazes and fired my kilns, some of them with wood. I sold my pots at fairs and festivals mostly, though I had several galleries and shops that carried my work as well. In the early days it was a meager living, but eventually it all paid off.
Around the year 2000 I made a big switch. For all the 25 years that I was making pots I kept working on other skills, mainly drawing and watercolors, always thinking I might like to be a printmaker/etcher someday. So, in 2000, I stopped making pots and went back to school at the University of Oregon in Eugene Oregon majoring in printmaking. For about a year and a half I studied printmaking with Peggy Prentice, and drawing with Ron Graff, as well as other media with other professors. I loved it there and feel grateful for all the knowledge and support I received. Eventually after a few years of practice and study I grew confident enough to sell my pottery equipment and buy an etching press.
Printmaking, particularly etching, has gone through major changes over the last few decades. I originally learned a traditional method of etching using copper plates and nitric acid to “etch” my imagery into the copper plate. I would then ink and wipe the plate and print the image onto dampened paper with an etching press. But a new non-toxic method for creating “intaglio” plates using polymer plates was growing rapidly and eventually I learned and heartily embraced this change. This change, along with the advent of “water soluble” oil-based inks, has made printmaking a safe and welcoming media, and has opened new avenues of creativity and design in the world of printmaking.
My pottery studio was always at my residence where I made all my clay and glazes and fired my kilns, some of them with wood. I sold my pots at fairs and festivals mostly, though I had several galleries and shops that carried my work as well. In the early days it was a meager living, but eventually it all paid off.
Around the year 2000 I made a big switch. For all the 25 years that I was making pots I kept working on other skills, mainly drawing and watercolors, always thinking I might like to be a printmaker/etcher someday. So, in 2000, I stopped making pots and went back to school at the University of Oregon in Eugene Oregon majoring in printmaking. For about a year and a half I studied printmaking with Peggy Prentice, and drawing with Ron Graff, as well as other media with other professors. I loved it there and feel grateful for all the knowledge and support I received. Eventually after a few years of practice and study I grew confident enough to sell my pottery equipment and buy an etching press.
Printmaking, particularly etching, has gone through major changes over the last few decades. I originally learned a traditional method of etching using copper plates and nitric acid to “etch” my imagery into the copper plate. I would then ink and wipe the plate and print the image onto dampened paper with an etching press. But a new non-toxic method for creating “intaglio” plates using polymer plates was growing rapidly and eventually I learned and heartily embraced this change. This change, along with the advent of “water soluble” oil-based inks, has made printmaking a safe and welcoming media, and has opened new avenues of creativity and design in the world of printmaking.