Spending one's life as a potter is not one of those options that shows up in nursery rhymes with "Doctor, Lawyer, and Indian Chief." So, without role models, it took me several of my late teen's and early 20's obsessively making pots before it actually dawned on me that maybe I could create a life with pots at the center.

Function emerged early and continuously as a priority for me. I went from one series to another of new ideas exploring primarily form; but once I got a handle on what was tap, tap, tapping from the inside of these embryonic ideas, I always adjusted the scale, proportion and usability to tailor-fit function. Utility matters to me. It doesn't have to be at the expense of beauty, but the apparent beauty must not inhibit the intended use.

Someone once said "Functional pottery is about life as lived." There's something very tangible to me about producing things that are destined for the kitchen or dining room… enriching the day to day experience of living beyond the kind of influence a piece of sculpture or a painting can transmit through the eyes. One can actually eat their eggs from my expressions of spirit, and none-the-less enjoy their visual usefulness.

It's a huge challenge to stay within the confines of function with all its millennia of tradition and still express something personal. There's a reason for conventions - they work! I thrive comfortably within these limits.

Lisa Naples