Ceramics, Ritual, and Community Connection

Since returning from my residency, I’ve been focusing on how the lessons I learned abroad can deepen my work here in Milwaukee. That time away clarified something simple but profound: ceramics can be a vessel not only for food, but for connection — to the land, to ritual, and to each other.

This vision is unfolding in collaboration with Jamie Lee Ohland, an artists, chef, gardener, and creative force. Jamie hosts extraordinary meals that honor seasonality and earth stewardship, and I create ceramic pieces that act as both tableware and sculpture — visual anchors that hold and heighten the experience.

Together, we’re creating gatherings that blend nourishment, art, and presence — building small spaces where people feel reconnected to themselves and their community. Our belief is simple: if we want peace and humility in the world, we start at the table.

Gatherings often happen where the food is grown: in the garden. Present & Past

Our work together reflects a shared belief that something profound happens when people gather intentionally — to eat, to share, to reflect. In a world that often feels isolating, these moments of collective presence are a kind of gentle resistance. We craft menus and objects that speak to season, place, and purpose. Small plates and handmade dishes become still lifes, layered with meaning and texture.

This practice also reflects a deeper truth: artists are central to economic and social healing. Our work holds value — not just in galleries, but in the public sphere, around kitchen tables, and inside neighborhood parks. When artists are supported and empowered, we help stitch together what’s been frayed in our communities, offering beauty, structure, and care. We generate culture, connection, and commerce — often in places where systems have failed.

It's the people that make it come together.

SMARTY Goals for Our Community Gatherings

These events are designed to inspire growth, reflection, and collective intention among attendees. Here’s what we hope our guests take with them:

• Specific: Each guest identifies one personal ritual they can adopt (weekly meal, gratitude pause, reconnecting with land or food).

• Measurable: 75% of attendees complete a reflection card at the end of the event, sharing how the experience impacted them or what they’ll carry forward.

• Achievable: Guests will receive a take-home prompt or small handmade token to help carry the spirit of the gathering into daily life.

• Relevant: The themes we explore — healing, climate, ancestry, nourishment — are grounded in current realities that our neighbors and neighborhoods are facing.

• Time-bound: We follow up with attendees within 30 days to offer a resource, connection, or invitation to a future event.

• Yours: Attendees shape the tone and future of these gatherings. Their feedback and presence are the true art we’re cultivating.

This is local work with global potential. And it starts — like most beautiful things — in community.

Collaborative works by Jamie & Melissa

I'm so honored to work with Jamie Lee Ohland, a talented mixed media artist and the founder of Ephemere, a unique dining concept celebrating the fleeting beauty of nature. Jamie's work spans printmaking, alternative photography, and culinary performance, drawing inspiration from the natural world and her childhood experiences in Northern Wisconsin. Her art reflects a meditative practice rooted in cycles of life, death, and the Daoist principle of Wu Wei. Jamie's creative vision has been featured on platforms like AlternativePhotography.com, and she continues to share her culinary and artistic endeavors with a growing community.