If paintings are a window, where one can have a glimpse of ongoing thoughts, or moments of a dreamlike world of color, light, music, free of time, space and matter; then working with clay is working with the earth, weight, gravity, structure, form, reality, limits, time, as clay teaches one to pause, to wait for the right amount of water in her consistency or the desired degree of plasticity- from liquid to rock hard, in order to form, and not loose the line, build upon itself, mold, impress, shape, carve, scrape, brush, sand, burnish, be dissolved, reconstituted, remade into a different form; unfired clay, is forgiving, healing, grounding, a world of opportunity. In working with clay, the earth, we must consider the other three elements of air, water, fire, and how its transformation from earth to stone is an alchemical process which reflects our soul's passage through life.
In 1988, I began to work on the themes of life in clay; this was because of a feeling of deep emptiness. I called them Retablos, the images were enclosed by a protective box and frame, when these fell away, in 1995, the panels became part of the wall; some even stood on their own. When I arrived to Mallorca in 2004, I began using glass as a lighter, transparent base, but found it too cold. In 2008, The Return to the Garden depicted the young trees I had planted and these represented a return to lasting images and values. The most recent works in clay are from the exhibition in 2010, Ecdysis, the molting of skins, lives, pausing, looking back to see where we are, and, where we are going, what we take what we leave behind.