After a formal education in art at the University of Oregon and graduating with an MFA in 1974, I set out to try to make a living by making pottery.  Success was achieved in creating highly decorative dinnerware and gift ware, many with personalized lettering and images.  This work helped raise a family but after 20 years, a change was in order, and I began to explore aspects and techniques of ceramics that I had left behind, having been seduced by the potters wheel early on.  My interest in ikebana led to hand building with clay and coaxed me to work and explore in completely new ways.  I love exploring different textural possibilities, often inspired by things found in nature, and sometimes even using pieces of stone or wood to create those textures.  I also enjoy slab building and extruding, making the kinds of forms that certain glazes can work their magic on best.

As a continuing student of Sogetsu Ikebana under sensei Soho Sakai, and with input from my many friends who are also teachers of ikebana and the members of Soho Study Group, my containers for ikebana are continually evolving.

Many thanks to my wife and collaborator in clay, Barbara, who has always supported my endeavors no matter how implausible they might seem.  And thanks to my mom, Anne Ward, an accomplished Sogetsu teacher, and horticulture and flower judge for the Garden Club of America, who has encouraged my ikebana ceramics and helped me in completing the Sogetsu curriculum.  And also thanks to Soho Sensei, who inspires us all, and whose amazing crtiques always seem to push us to a higher level.  I am very lucky.