Artist Statement

My art life began at 32. I believe that this is an important part of my story. While I know that my early childhood was filled with crayons and tempera, almost 20 years of my life were lived in ignorance of a creative spirit or an ability of hands. The reasons for this are many but the point is, the creativity and ability were there. It was that I could not see.

Beginning to see was connected with beginning to feel. My work is very connected to how I feel -- the range of human emotions -- none better than another. I believe emotions exist to help our bodies and our souls communicate. They should be celebrated as the keys to knowing ourselves better, not locked away in the variety of ways that we do. In my work I celebrate feelings about nature, feelings about art, feelings of playfulness, feelings of pain, and feelings about what it's like to be a woman in this culture.

It is through CLAY that I express myself. Why clay?

To me, clay is a merging of form and spirit. Clay is the earth and imagination. The actual process of working in clay makes me feel as if I am touching the ground and touching the sky at the same time. While I love what I can do, I love the doing of it more. And throwing a bowl on the wheel is as important to feeding my spirit as modeling sculpture.

But it is through the functional pieces that I am most able to share some of my feelings about life with others. When people take home one of my bowls, I imagine that maybe through the craziness of today’s American culture, for just an instant, when they are preparing a meal they’ll think -- Somebody made this. Another human being made it because she wanted to -- not just because she needed the money. Maybe a small reflection would occur, a seed, -- Am I doing what I love? Am I living close to my heart?

This is what my work is about...

Living close to my heart.

Joey Sage Jablonski