I began to take an interest in the life and work of Josiah Wedgwood in 2016. I was first drawn to the 18th-century potter through his innovative use of colored pigment in clay known as Jasper. But as I learned more, I became fascinated by the grander picture of Wedgwood’s innovative spirit, and eager to apply it to a present-day study of ceramic art.

 In spring of 2017, Dr. Anne Forschler-Terrash of the Birmingham Museum of Art invited me to study the museum’s preeminent collection of Wedgwood. It was there and then that a long-term research project began. As I handled the many historic works, as I sat with Dr. Forschler-Terrash who helped me to begin to understand them, I fell deeply for the quality of what was in front of me. There, I discovered a type of ceramics that was truly distinct, opening up a series of questions that I’m trying to answer to this day.

That first trip to Birmingham changed the way I thought about how I engaged in research. Shortly thereafter, Wedgwood began to permeate all aspects of my “job”. It has since been the thing that bridges my role as an artist and educator; as such, it deserves its own space, here, as a visual account of how I experience balancing the creative life of being a potter and professor at the Rochester Institute of Technology.

I overarchingly think of this research as the Wedgwood Legacy Project. It’s named with respect to a class I’ve created at RIT, titled Josiah Wedgwood’s Legacy. For those interested, here is a  glimpse into my ever-evolving Wedgwood world.