A number of pieces in this folder display a tree bark pattern. I wouldn’t go so far as calling myself a “tree hugger” (although I have been known to engage in the behavior from time to time), but I am akin to the Lorax, and I speak for the trees.

They have been a constant in my work and they are present, even after they are old and gone. Many of these pouches have been imprinted with bark, each piece obtained from a felled “old timer”, cut down either by “gentrification of nature” or via weather activity. I find the bark texture intriguing and my intention is to memorialize these venerated elders in porcelain.

you teach me
bare tree—how to contort
gracefully

tree in mid-dance—
who else will soar
in your bare arms?

Haiku by Janet Brof