The past year has been remarkable. One of the most exciting parts was the very long time we spent in Utah: Bryce, Canyonlands, Arches, Zion, St. George, Kenab, Escalante, Boulder, and Capitol Reef. Walking, hiking, exploring, meeting people and doing some of these spots over again. 

For years the college trips and end of ski season trips to Arizona and Utah influenced my work and gave me form and color to express myself. But that was a very long time ago. 

Suddenly last March, my husband and I were in the zone. Dispersed camping with an RV and committed to the journey, we stayed six weeks.

I recognized right away how it would have impressed a 20 year old for a lifetime. Loving clay and ceramics and geology – this would remain in me as a cornerstone of how I would express myself. I didn’t read “Basin and Range” by John McPhee until a few years later, when I was about 24. It saved me in graduate school when I wondered what in the world I was doing in Michigan and had only my memories to work from.

Here is a picture of me walking through a slot canyon. I felt like I was inside one of my own sculptures and I was having a blast. To reconnect with all of the forms, textures and the colors that I had practiced so long to imitate in a way that would bring meaning to my work was inspiring enough for many more lifetimes of art.

Geology to me connects our lives to long, deep time, the long view. It is the constant of change, the scarring of change, the beauty of change over time. What was catastrophic settles and becomes a peaceful, beautiful landscape, still changing and being changed by water and wind.