Born in communist Czechoslovakia, I apprenticed in a four-year ceramic program after the fall of the Berlin Wall in post-communist Czech Republic. While working in a production pottery studio in Prague, shortly after the Velvet Revolution when Czechs freed themselves from Soviet power and felt a renewed national consciousness, my life took an unexpected turn.  I found a new home in the United States.  Thirty-five years have passed since that national transformation and my own metamorphosis.  While in the US, I earned a MA. with a concentration in composition from San Francisco State University.  I also hold a BA. in Comparative Literature (with a focus on English and Czech literature) from the University of California, Berkeley.  I have taught literature, English composition and critical thinking courses at UC Berkeley and SF State.

 

I'm currently working with clay in Oakland, California.  Working with clay involves the senses.  In my process, I engage with culture, history, aesthetic experience and the form itself.  In my latest project, The Raw Series, I'm creating plates and vessels using porcelain and colored slip, keeping them "raw" or unglazed.