The wall pieces in my most recent series, "Archeology of Desire," tie together several ideas that have threaded their way through my work over the decades. As in the SUMMER '22 series, they borrow shapes from my dress pattern collages of the early 1980s that refer obliquely to the female body, but can also be read as aerial landscapes, terrain, architecture and maps. My early work as a printmaker is reflected in the surface handling of the clay. By applying and wiping away underglaze to the bisque-fired and sanded pieces I can create surfaces that have the feel of an intaglio print, as well as the gesture and immediacy of a drawing. But at the same time the clay allows me to pull the forms away from the wall and introduce an element of stress and tension – to suggest organic growth, fragility and vulnerability.