Much time and positive energy has gone into my pottery. Art has played a role in my life from the time I was a little girl running around in the sand and salt water. Both my parents are artistically inclined and my grandmother enthusiastically encouraged me along the way. At school for Advertising & Graphic Design I met entertaining people while nurturing artistic thought and training my eye aesthetically.

Working in the Advertising industry in front of a monitor ten plus hours a day, I felt my energy being drained. On the other hand, working with clay I feel a reciprocal transfer of energy between myself and the clay. I use the term “working with clay” to mean just that; but it also involves experimenting, learning, testing and getting dirty! I love it!

I was fortunate to spend six years of my pottery career with the Phil Morgan Pottery family. I learned more hands on than I could have ever learned in any classroom. However, the classroom experience I do have helped form the interest I have in pottery today. Phil and Julia were better at touch, feel and sight than any results an oxy-probe or hydrometer could give. This allowed me to become experienced with raku, wood, reduction and oxidation firing methods and their corresponding glaze techniques including copper red and salt-ash.

Currently I enjoy making luminaries, face jugs, teapots, whimsicals and various utilitarian ware. I have great friends and family that love what I do and some that even like to join in! Thank you for viewing my work and sharing in my journey. “To live is to create!”

— Dawn Tagawa