I work primarily from imagination. I like maps and aerial views, so I sometime trace maps as a starting point or think of a place I know and then work with color and composition as I wish. Since I live on a tidal river my work is always influenced by my view of marshes and islands. Because they are unglazed, I can change my pieces radically by painting them with acrylic paint even after they are fired. My sister, Caroline Knox gives me the titles for my work.

Three artists I admire are Milton Avery, Albert Pinkham Ryder and Charles Simmons. In Milton Avery I admire the open landscapes and use of color. I am drawn to Albert Pinkham Ryder’s meditative seascapes. I admire Charles Simmons because when I was a little girl I built little villages with sticks and found materials in the grass, and his work reminds me of making those villages. My work is unlike these artists, but I appreciate what they have contributed to my work.

My current art medium, porcelain relief painting, evolved from working with children in clay. This new medium led me to making clay boxes with pictures inside them. The sides of the boxes evolved into the frames for larger pictures to which I added relief. The ideas I had to generate for teaching little children as well as my affinity for and proximity to the ocean and marshes have helped me greatly over the years in the content of my work.

This is how I make my porcelain relief paintings: I construct the porcelain frame, rolling out the clay, and then build the relief. When the piece dries, I paint it with engobes (colored clay). I do not glaze the clay. After it is fired, I use the surface like a canvas and paint it with acrylic paint. This allows for further development of the picture after it is fired. The acrylic paint adheres to the fired clay.