Green glazed earthenware vessel with nailhead surface design and fluted edge by potter Julie Terestman.

Upon graduating, I moved back to NYC and set up a pottery studio in Jersey City where I still work. In 1992 I began teaching at Greenwich House Pottery and the West Side YMCA where I continue to teach, along with recently starting to teach at Kingsborough College.

My spiritual path has moved along with my path as a potter. I am a longtime Zen student practicing with Roshi Enkyo O'Hara at the Village Zendo in NYC since 1993. I was ordained as a Zen Priest in the Soto lineage. At the zendo I regularly give talks and serve as a chaplain at the Sing Sing Correctional Facility in NY.

For me, the act of making is a means of travel. In each pot, I try to capture a moment, or a sense of somewhere I’ve been or imagined, something I’ve seen or felt, or somewhere I’d like to go. While the journey may at first seem to be in the past, looking for something remembered or familiar, it inevitably leads somewhere new. This subtle gap – between the familiar and the unknown is a mysterious place. It is this space that a pot can give pause to moments of contemplation, moments that usually quickly and quietly slip by unnoticed. With attention, these moments can reveal the beauty and possibility in our ordinary life. I hope my work can help to remind myself and others to appreciate just this.