When I was seven years old, I saw glassblowing for the first time at a local university. We all have an inner pyro, and mine wasn’t the same after that. I began my study of glass as an undergraduate at California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo, California where I received a BA in philosophy and minors in glass and literature. Accepted to pursue a PhD in philosophy at SUNY Binghamton, I chose instead to study glass and move to Madison, Wisconsin where I completed my MFA degree in May of 2003. Shorty after that, I went to work at Pearson Design Studios in Maine, reporducing the famous forged designs by the late Ronald Hayes Pearson. I was still married to glass, but had a love affair with metals. Upon a return to California in 2004, I taught drawing and sculpture at Cal Poly State University full-time, before returning to Madison to teach glassblowing at the UW. I work in a variety of mediums including ceramic, stone, metal, photography and fabric, though glass remains my profession’s material. I prefer to use glass not for its mimetic qualities to capture the look of other materials, but for it’s ability to express flow, freeze a moment in time, and manipulate optics. Growing up on the Central Coast of California connected me to the sea, which has been the greatest influence on my work. Four years ago, I became a diver and underwater photographer, developing a passion for deep water diving and night diving. The ocean has always been a source of inspiration and mystery to me, and it is a lifelong goal of mine to dive all of the earth’s seas.