How Did This Happen To Me?

I've always doodled, drawn and twisted stray pieces of wire into shapes. But, I was single-mindedly focused on music throughout my schooling. During my time at Northern Illinois, I must have walked by the art building and the kilns hundreds of times on my way to class, even stopping to watch the excitement of an unloading, but never thought to check it out...

A few years later, the "buts" ran out. During Christmas break, I finally go the nerve to ask my mother-in-law If she would show me how to use her wheel
in the basement. She teaches at the Fine Line Creative Arts Center in St. Charles, IL and did a great job of
getting me hooked. I was down there
all day creating anassortment of speaker cone shaped cylinders and doorstops. My pieces quickly improved thanks to her help.

I soon found Creative Claythings in Chicago and learned much from the owner Mary and other teachers there. After a couple short years of potting bliss, I took a job teaching music in Downers Grove, IL. This consumed my life for the next three years and clay took a hiatus. We then moved out of
the city and I slowly stared getting
back into clay work when our house addition became my studio. I included clay whistle-making into my 7th grade music class and bought a kiln to fire them. Eventually, I bought a wheel
and have been throwing and firing as much as I can.