Pino’s course really had an effect on me. I was looking at sculpture as I never had before - I was a glass blower not a sculptor. Now I was looking at people as I never had before. To this day I look more closely at the way people are shaped and the way they move. It is at times quite embarrassing, sometimes I have to force myself not to stare.

These vases came about from several sources; I was fascinated by the little Neolithic fetishes that were being found at the time in caves. They were little clay or bone female figures with huge breasts and hips no feet, no head, and no arms. Whether this lack of extremities was by design or accident I do not know. I found them charming as they were. As I am a vessel maker and prone to making functional objects I wanted to make some as vessels in order to be useful. Thus making them hollow and able to stand upright. I was told in college that vessels are metaphors for the human body.

So here we have little vessels in the form of the human body.

I had a show of these in Vancouver once; I put a flower in each to show their practicality and to give them a head so to speak. I was accused of hating women, having decapitated and mutilated their (women) image. I was stunned by this accusation. I could only point out that I must hate men as well, as they were treated the same, in being lacking a head and arms.