As an artist I have gravitated towards clay as a media to evoke emotion in the viewer. I explored the notion of structures, complex systems that are made of many parts. I believe these systems exist in various places, from city architecture to social systems and personal emotions. How can systems be simultaneously strong and vulnerable? There is strength as well as frailty in being dependent upon another force. Working as a ceramicist has allowed me to push clay to a point of near weightless fragility. Through a poetic image or series of objects, I tell the story of loss, longing, and repair. The technical challenges I create in my studio practice and the imagery of the resulting work are metaphors for the challenges we face in our day-to-day lives that shape who we are.