Blackfish Gallery, Portland Oregon

2018

“A teapot is a machine that makes tea.” - John Neely

“You have to learn when it’s appropriate to sacrifice a little bit of function for the sake of form.” - Dan Hammett

“You can’t get a cup of tea big enough or a book long enough to suit me.” - CS Lewis

Tea has a lengthy, rich, ubiquitous history, and its gentle presence in today’s world carries a weight and import as subtle and complex as its wide range of flavours. I am no master of tea. I am just another potter with a daily morning ritual of steeping and drinking tea as I wake up, transition from the previous night’s dreams into the reality of the day ahead. I can no more forego this ritual than I can forego the sleep that came before or the activity that comes after. Considering the growing tumult in the world, the drastic news we find ourselves waking up to every morning, my ritual of tea in the morning is my one reliable, comfortable moment of peace and contemplation on any given day. It is my time, my own, to spend alone while I do a well-considered nothing.

In other news, I’m totally turning into my mother.