Hey, I've got a life outside pottery just like the next guy. I like to think those things I do to restore my soul also influence my work. I hope my family is as much an inspiration to my pottery as it is a motivation. Life needs to be lived outside the studio and then somehow the best parts come back and find their way into the art.

I am married to the lovely Rebecca Bringgold Erickson. We have two children, Andrew & Anna. I also have two wonderful older married daughters, Sarah and her husband Mike & Britta and her husband Aaron and a granddaughter, Afton.

This last October I was diagnosed with stage 4 pancreatic cancer. This winters project is learning to live with the cancer. I am continueing to cross country ski and bicycle, we are about to start the next phase of the remodeling project and I am building up an old Bianchi frame into a touring bike for Rebecca. Working in the studio continues.

Last winter we  remodeled our, kitchen and 2 bathrooms. We also added a deck and a pergola. We had a good contractor and crew but it still took up a lot of studio time going over plans and details. I did a lot of xc skiing for exersize but the fun project was to build up a cyclecross bike that will take studded tires. I rode it a dozen times during the winter on icy, gravel roads. I also repaired the frame of my first "real" bike, a 1974 Motobecane Grand Jubilee. The frame was then repainted and built up as a single speed / fixiebike for city riding.

A previouis winter's side project was to rebuild my touring bike (even new paint!) and tune up the family's bikes. Ok, my tune up stand is a decomissioned wind trainer mounted on a old microwave table, but it works. Heres to some family rides.

a previous project was to get Andy & Anna out on the Hobie 16. The fact that refurbished hulls were stored in the garage ( for two summers) and the trailer was in a state of total disrepair were the biggest problems. On a July evening Andy and I sailed it from Bayport to Stillwater and back for a nice dinner cruise.