With an interest in design, I like to work with implied texture in both the sgraffito and Mishima techniques. With both Close Comfort and Leaf Bottle, I have heavily used sgraffito to present my organic imagery. Leaf Bottle was an experiment in early undergrad to push the boundaries in which I could use my illustration to practice sgraffito as a subtractive art form. Using the ceramic body as a canvas for design, I continue to experiment with different genres of imagery in my work. Close Comfort was part of a series of work I did during my senior year of undergrad where I focused on visually-stimulating abstract design. This work was meant to use repetition and pattern to create close organic shapes that appear to be vibrating in place or give a trypophobic reaction. Mushroom Forest was a fun exercise using line weight, repetition, and composition to create a simple scene of a fungi community. My illustration Mushroom Forest precedes the other two works in a way that informs and influences my ceramic practice today: using digital illustration as a platform for experimentation using high-contrast imagery as well as a major tool for planning my ceramic work. During planning stages I sketch over multi-view photos of my forms to map out my imagery ahead, which saves studio time as the clay is usually in the leather-hard stage of drying while I apply the design. Although under-represented in this body of work, my imagery today is heavily influenced by nature: Flora, Fungi, and Fauna are equally present.