Art has always been about more than the object.
For more than 35 years, I have collected art, visited museums and galleries, taken workshops, and spent time talking with artists about their work.
My mother was an artist, and growing up she taught me to notice things—a well-designed building, a painting, an interesting shape or color. I don’t think I realized then how much that way of looking would become part of my own life.
My relationship with clay began again after moving to Vermont in 1994. I joined a local art center looking for a way to meet people and returned to something I had loved as a teenager: ceramics.
Before long, I was making pottery, taking classes, helping with the business side of the art center, and getting to know artists from many different backgrounds.
I also began collecting their work.
Each piece came home with a story—the artist who made it, the studio where I found it, the process used to create it. And then something else happened. We used the art.
A handmade casserole held dinner. A platter came out for Thanksgiving. A favorite lamp became part of evenings spent reading. Paintings and photographs became part of the rooms where our family lived.
That experience shaped an idea I still believe today:
Art belongs in our everyday lives.
C2C Gallery
When I returned to Michigan in 2007, I spent several years setting up my ceramic studio and thinking about what I wanted the next part of my creative life to look like.
In 2011, with the help of several friends, C2C Gallery opened in downtown Grand Haven.
It began with my pottery studio right inside the gallery. Over time, C2C grew to represent more than 40 artists, primarily from Michigan.
But C2C was never simply a place to sell art.
We hosted First Fridays, artist talks, demonstrations, music, exhibitions and community events. We introduced customers to artists and helped people understand how and why things were made. Later, we created videos, virtual studio visits and online conversations that allowed people to meet artists in their own studios.
One of the most meaningful parts of those years was helping other artists find an audience for their work.
I loved discovering an artist whose work deserved to be seen. I loved talking with customers about why a particular piece was special. And I loved watching relationships develop between artists, collectors and our community.
Art and community
My involvement in the arts has always extended beyond C2C Gallery.
Over the years, I have volunteered, served on committees and boards, helped organize exhibitions and events, raised funds, supported arts organizations, and looked for ways to connect artists with opportunities.
I believe strong communities need artists—and artists need communities that value what they make.
Sometimes that means purchasing someone’s work. Sometimes it means organizing an exhibition, introducing an artist to someone new, attending an opening, asking questions, volunteering, or simply encouraging someone to keep making.
Those things matter.
A return to my own work
In 2020, I closed the brick-and-mortar gallery and moved C2C online. For several years, I continued representing a smaller group of artists.
Then, in 2025, I made another change.
After so many years spent balancing my own studio practice with running a gallery and supporting the work of other artists, I decided it was time to give my ceramic work more room.
Today, C2C Gallery is focused on my ceramics and the place that continues to inspire them—the Lake Michigan shoreline.
But the years of collecting, curating, working with artists and participating in my community haven’t disappeared from what I do.
They have become part of how I see.
I still visit artists’ studios. I still collect art. I still take workshops. I still support artists and arts organizations. And I am still curious about how other people see the world.
That curiosity has become an important part of my own work and my Looking Closely writing.
Art for your everyday life
The C2C Gallery of today looks very different from the gallery that opened in 2011.
But the idea behind it really hasn’t changed.
I believe handmade objects connect us to the people who make them and to the places and experiences that inspired them.
I believe we should use the things we love.
And I believe that when we slow down and look closely, there is always more to discover.
Art isn’t something we have to save for special occasions. It can simply become part of our lives.
