Focusing on Just 3 objects Makes Jana Evans Pottery Shine

Specialization is the key to being the best at your discipline. Living and breathing just one style, technique, color, texture, or object. This is hard in the realm of pottery, where within our little world there seems like endless variables to fiddle with. Ceramic artist Jana Evans has focus and vision, making just 3 pottery forms – cups, bowls, and jars, and it’s paying off.

My work revolves around the familiarity that is inherent in handmade vessels. I attempt to generate an intimate relationship of use by reaching out to others in the form of a handmade cup, bowl or jar. While the bowl holds nourishment, the jar keeps and protects, and the cup communes with the mouth…”

Evans works with familiar patterns from modern design trends. You may see her polka-dots on a department store dress, or her line patterns and colors on paper plates or a visual theme in a Target collection. She takes these vaguely familiar icons and gives them soul through the process of making. Even though it may not be immediately perceptible, you can feel a person inside of Evan’s work, where manufactured goods are inevitable vacant of humanness. Her pieces contain moments of unexpected personality – where the glaze drips slightly outside its designated circle, where the dotted line takes an unexpected turn, and where a curious small block protrudes from the surface.

Tell us what you think of ceramic artist Jana Evans in the comments!