After spending the majority of my life living and working in urban environments, I am now currently situated in the wilderness, miles away from society in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada Mountains in Northern California. The land around me is abundant with pine, oak, and cedar trees, many of which are hundreds of years old. After living among these trees for several years, I find myself living in harmony with them, basking in their beauty and presence in their domain. Drawing inspiration from the environment around me, it felt natural to incorporate natural elements into my work. 

After stumbling upon the research of Dr. Suzanne Simard, a professor of forest ecology at the University of British Columbia's Department of Forest and Conservation Sciences in Vancouver, and Peter Wohlleben, a German forester and author of  books such as "The Hidden Life of Trees: What they Feel, How they Communicate", I started to look at these trees differently.

"A forest is much more than what you see.... underground there is this other world, a world of infinite biological pathways that connect trees and allow them to communicate, and allow the forest to behave as though it's a single organism."

- Suzanne Simard

Communication through water has been a core subject of my work for many years. As I continue to explore this concept in my new works, introducing wood seemed like a natural progression.

The concept behind this new work centers around notions of communication and harmony. The ceramic pieces are each inscribed with Japanese characters, denoting themes of water, respect, communication, and knowledge, among others. The ceramic pieces are presented around the wood, and in some cases sculpted into the wood itself, serving as a means of communication between the viewer and the object.

A tea house in Japanese culture is a space specifically designed for tea ceremony, usually a small and simple wooden building often made using materials found in the surrounding areas. With an abundance of land and materials around me, I set out to create a tea house that could blend in and exist in harmony with nature, while also designing a space where people could enjoy taking part in a ritual-like tea experience.

Although I studied and experienced many aspects of traditional Japanese tea ceremony, I did not follow the traditional rules and customs when creating this space. Rather, this space is an adaptation consistent with concepts present in my new works. I wanted to create a space that was conceptual in character but could be functionally used for the purposes of having and experiencing tea. When confined to the interior space, I felt it was important to feel as though you were in another dimension. A space isolated from reality where people could gather for the singular purpose of enjoying each other's company.