joanne signature_mark
A ceramic artist since 1980, I started making pots in a barn in northern Illinois after graduating from Eastern Illinois University. As of 1984, Madison, Wisconsin has been my home where I live and work as a studio potter. It is here where my husband and I have built our home and studio, raised three kids, cats, chickens and other assorted animals. Travels and studies in the southwestern United States, Mexico, Japan and most recently Germany, have been major influences in my work, while historic traditions of my medium are something I constantly refer to. I have shown nationwide at art fairs and galleries and my work has ended up in places as far away as Kenya, Japan, England, Brazil and Australia.

Currently, I am focusing on showing and selling my work in galleries closer to home in Wisconsin. My environment has been my inspiration for form and surface imagery…. people, prairie, lake and woodland, stories we tell each other. Whether it be metaphoric sculptural vessels, or functional objects decorated with geometric representations of natural phenomena, I enjoy residing in a continuum of thousands of years of tradition. It's constant evolution and exploration, a dialogue with clay and glazes.

I am blessed to be able to do the work that I love and pass it along to others through teaching.