Sources of Inspiration & My Teachers

"The heart that breaks open can contain the whole universe."

Paulus Berensohn

Paulus Berensohn, Deep Ecologist, crafts artist, author of Finding Ones Way with Clay. The more I have gotten to know Paulus, the more his life inspires me. In an interview on Australian Broadcasting Corporation’s Earthbeat program Paulus said...

"... I personally think that the craft arts isn’t about an alternative way of making a living and filling museums and galleries with gorgeous objects, I think it’s the clay and the fiber and the metals and the wood saying ‘Listen, listen to me. Put your hands on me, and you’ll make contact with a living world. The word ‘art’, if you go back into its etymological roots, it’s not a noun, it’s a verb, it’s a doing, an acting, and it comes from the root for ‘to join’. So one is behaving artistically, one is in a state of intimacy and communion with the activity at hand".

Eileen Wallace

Eileen Wallace, a bookbinder and designer currently working with Dard Hunter Studios (OH). She is a former Penland school of Arts resident artist, studio coordinator, and publication designer. She has been co-director of the Paper and Book Intensive since 1996 and teaches at Columbus College of Art and Design (OH).

Kitty Couch

Kitty Couch (1923-2004) – Ceramic artist, free spirit – It’s because of Kitty that I went to Penland School of Crafts. She invited me over for weekly visits of informal handbuilt clay instruction, tea and laughter. Of her work, Couch wrote: "It is about my relationship to the natural world of form and its mysterious content." She was a dear friend and a great inspiration to me (and to everyone who knew her).

Peg Gignoux

Peg Gignoux - Fiber artist and teacher – I had the incredible joy of taking Peg’s 10-day bookmaking class, in France, September 2006. www.ingignouxity.com