The nitty gritty:

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I am a one- person ceramics operation  in Butte, Montana. I grew up on a ranch in Southwest Montana. I have since lived in numerous places around the state, always spending as much time as possible at the family ranch. I run Open Sky Arts out of my small (but cozy!) home studio.

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On my art:

I create functional pottery in two landscapes: ranchland and a mining city. Both are generational existences where a person’s hands are essential tools and the story-teller of character. 

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Everything I notice in my story is overseen by sky. In Montana, the sky allows for room to exist. In awe of this, I love the poetry of horizons. They are the meeting place of the skyline and fresh air. In the places I live, the lines of the horizon are tall with a dramatic cadence of five mountain ranges.

 

Within this landscape, everything I envision begins with mountains. Framed by the sky are the silhouettes of my Montana. My work becomes full of these images, balanced with attention to the shape and function of the pot.

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My work is textural, functional, and thoughtful. I became addicted to clay because of its tactile nature and its direct relation to my roots in hands-on labor. Originally a watercolorist and pencil artist, I combine my passions of drawing, color, and clay into one piece by carving and painting imagery on the clay. 

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    I want to craft my history into a clay vessel that tells the story of where I’m from. I hope when you hold a piece I’ve made that you feel my intent- there is a thread that connects my home to the place that’s yours, and that it was made just for you.