After working in Japan with the International Workshop for Ceramic Arts in Tokoname, I used clay with a higher percentage of grog and I hand built in a more immediate and loose manner. My experience enriched my understanding of the Japanese way of clay and gave me greater international perspectives of ceramics working alongside clay artists form all over the world.

The idea for this piece, Torqued Vision II, came from a dream I had where my hands were melting into the branches of a tree. It is about my own lifestyle and history, but it was shaped in part by the aesthetics of Japan. This piece was the first work I completed after returning from Japan in 1993. I have always been a lover of trees and did not realize I had created bamboo textures on the trunk of the piece until a friend pointed this out to me.

In 1998 this piece was exhibited at the Carnegie Museum in an invitational exhibit called Pittsburgh Collects Clay. the show coincided with the Michael Lucero exhibit.