About

From a young age, I’ve been captivated by the act of creating. As a child, one of my earliest memories was molding Play-Doh with my granddad, shaping it into the different animals on the side of the container. I dreamed of becoming a cartoonist, sketching characters from my favorite shows, trying to capture their essence. In first grade, I was awestruck by my teacher’s husband’s ink drawing of a church she brought in to show me, its intricate lines leaving a lasting impression. That same awe resurfaced when we moved next door to the son of a renowned oil painter, who introduced me to the tactile world of clay.

Growing up, I straddled two worlds: art and technology. On one side, I was surrounded by creativity—experimenting with clay, painting, and drawing, even rigging a nine-volt battery to a motor taken from a toy to make tiny pots using a sewing needle. On the other, my uncle’s TV/VCR repair shop exposed me to electronics, where I learned to reset VCR timings, read schematics, and introduced to computers. These dual influences shaped me profoundly, planting seeds for the paths I’d later explore.

My teenage years were a blur of angst and missed opportunities. The one memory that sticks with me was in high school one of my art teacher's brought in a potters wheel. Although I was never able to try or see anything demonstrated on that wheel. It sparked memories of those tiny pots made with needles.

By my late teens, I drifted from both art and tech. It wasn’t until I met my future wife that I found renewed purpose. Inspired by her, I sold my guitar to buy graphic design software, aiming to become a graphic artist. I worked at a print shop and volunteered for nonprofits, making newsletters and posters. But the precision of controlling every pixel with digital design overwhelmed my perfectionist streak, and I burned out. Then, one day, I passed a ceramic supply store and saw a potter’s wheel on display. Memories of that high school art room flooded back. With my wife’s support—despite her practical suggestion to take classes first—we bought a wheel. I dove in, teaching myself to center clay and pull cylinders before enrolling in community college pottery classes.

Those classes led me to a semi-retired potter whose mentorship deepened my desires. Within a few years, I was fully committed to pottery, just as my wife and I welcomed our first child. But life intervened—I lost my job as a computer/network engineer, and with a family to support, I packed away my pottery supplies and pivoted to software engineering. My goal was stability: a salary, a home, and someday, a pottery studio. For nearly two decades, pottery took a backseat as I focused on tech, problem-solving, and providing for my family.

Now, that I’ve rediscovered my passion for pottery, balancing it with the tech world that’s sustained me. I’m still figuring out what this means for my future, but with clay in my hands and my family by my side, I’m embracing the journey, one pot at a time.