Functional Pottery and
About Me
I am a functional potter living and working in Ann Arbor, Michigan. I studied ceramics at the New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University, where I received a bachelors degree in fine art with a concentration in ceramics and a minor in k-12 art education. After college, I moved to Chicago, Illinois where I taught visual art at an inner-city school and worked as a resident artist. After two years of living in Chicago, I moved to Busan, South Korea with my husband and taught English at a public middle school while working as a resident artist at the Busan National University of Education. After my husband and I left South Korea, we traveled around south east Asia and Central America until we decided to settle in Denver, Colorado. For 12 years, I worked as a high school sculpture teacher and professional artist in southwest Denver before moving back to Michigan to be nearer to our roots. We currently are living between Michigan and Nicaragua where we run an arts and Spanish integration program called Craft for Community. Craftforcommunity.org
About the work
JLC Pottery Artist Statement 2023
There is something uniquely human about making art out of clay. As one of the oldest art materials in human history, I have been drawn to the material and absolutely obsessed with it since my first pottery class at the age of 10. The feeling of fresh clay between my fingers and the endless possibilities have my brain in a constant state of wonder. I enjoy moving through all of the stages of the process like a dance that is similar but ever changing in the result. For me, the process of making is as important as the product because of the therapeutic calm that it serves my being.
I am always thinking about touch. As my work is created to be used daily and serves a specific purpose to bring joy and comfort to the task that it has been created for. How does the piece feel when held, how will the work entertain, comfort or please the user; are constant questions that spiral through my thoughts through the entire process of making. These questions, paired with the never ending possibilities of surface, keep my work in a consistent evolution that responds to motifs of social justice, objects of comfort, and culturally diverse repeated patterns.
As part of my continued exploration of the material, I use several different clay bodies that span in color from deep brown to bright white. The way that patterns and surface techniques respond to these different canvases is strikingly different and creates a different experience depending on the clay body chosen. A porcelain mug yields a delicate bright white canvas that backlights whatever glaze or color is applied onto its surface, while the deep brown clay is usually left partially unglazed for the user to interact with its naturally rich texture.
As I waiver between claybodies and surface decoration, my work is cohesive within the themes of texture, imagery and form which provides a diverse body of work that is cohesive while each piece is individual. Each piece is thought through from foot to lip and edge to curve making sure that the experience of the user is enjoyable and specific, keeping them coming back for more.
