biography
Hello. If you have landed here you may be curious to know a little bit about me, and I would be more than happy to tell you.
My childhood was rich with doodling and art classes slotted in amongst school and sports. In high school, I would discover and quickly develop a passion for creating ceramics on the potter's wheel. Soon, I was not just spending my free time on the wheel, but rearranging my schedule to get more time on the wheel before school, during lunch, and/or after school. But, with only one wheel in the school and other kids who wanted a turn (pun intended), I quickly realized I would need to look outside school to satisfy my new found passion. To that end, and before graduating from high school, I would study under four of the area's best potters, become a member of the local potter's guild, purchase my own potter's wheel and kiln and sell everything I made at local art shows and to family and friends.
As exciting as that was at the time, following HS I elected to go another route for my profession and enrolled at Michigan State University to pursue a Mechanical Engineering degree. The next 30+ years were spent working for three companies in engineering and marketing capacities, including two years as an expat near London, and raising two terrific kids together with my wonderful wife. And I wouldn't change a thing.
However, with the loss of my father in late 2018, I took some time to reflect on my own life, which led me to rediscover my passion for ceramics. With the support of my family, I decided to get back into ceramics. Over the next few months I would have a complete ceramics studio built within our home, leave my corporate job, and start JackPot Ceramics and Advocates Now LLC, which provides consulting services to businesses who want to harness the power of their client advocates to drive better business results. I now split my time between the consulting business and pursuing my passion for ceramics out of my North Andover, MA home studio.
My current work utilizes colored porcelain slip as the medium applied on a plaster canvas form, which I shape on a potter's wheel. I refer to my new body of work simply as ‘practical porcelain presentations’. Learn more about my process on the process page.