CAC Artist Q&A Series: Design and Ceramics with Jess Palmer

Deco mugs by Jess Palmer, 2020. Find her work in our online shop!

Welcome to the second iteration of our CAC Artist Q&A Series. We hope everyone has been well and clay-ing in their own way. If you haven’t gotten your dose of clay, please take a look at our NCECA 2020 Gallery online and NCECA Artist Talk videos from our artists-in-residence. Today in this Q&A we will be getting to know a CAC artist that uses principles of graphic and interior design to inform her ceramics.

Meet Jess Palmer, a CAC Artist, who marries her background in graphic design and creative directing in advertising with the softness of porcelain. Her ceramic cups, bowls, and vases delight the eye with their incised lines, tasteful motifs, and touches of gold, a delicate balance between ornate and clean, and homage to Art Deco.

In our Q&A below, we will learn more about how Jess connects the aesthetics of two worlds, featuring a behind-the-scenes video of how Jess makes fine, decorative lines on one of her pieces.

Deco Chevron Mug, wheel-thrown, Porcelain, Cone 6 & Cone 018, 2020

How long have you been part of CAC and how has it impacted your life and work?
I’ve been at CAC since about 2010. Interestingly, even though I’m from Port Chester, I didn’t know it existed at the time. I found it on a google search while looking for a creative outlet from my highly stressful advertising job. Clay Art Center saved me! I was going through some incredibly tough times in my life from the recent loss of my dad to having health issues myself. I took a one day class and basically never left! I just kept taking classes and workshops with notable artists, until eventually I made the move to become a CAC artist myself about 3 or 4 years ago.

The thing that makes CAC so special is the community. I get to learn from so many people who have such a wealth of knowledge and experience in clay, and life. That’s what keeps me here. They pick you up when you’re down and are basically like family.

What references do you find yourself drawn to lately?
I’m digging in deeper to some Art Deco influences. I’ve been scouring historical books and really observing these patterns and designs from architecture, to wallpaper, to fabrics. I worked in many of the world’s most famous art deco buildings in NYC during my career, so I’ve always had a fascination with these spaces and the unique qualities of the interiors. I’ve also been looking a lot at modern interior design and following color trend and theory. I love that stuff. I think the designer in me can nerd out on that a little.

Deco Flower Brick, wheel-thrown, altered and assembled, Porcelain, Cone 6 & Cone 018 gold luster, 2020

What has working as a functional potter taught you?
I’ve always been a bit of a perfectionist, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but sometimes it can get in the way of my creative flow. I think pottery has both humbled me and strengthened me in that regard in many ways. There is a lot of loss and disappointment, and so you need to be able to adapt and roll with the punches a bit. I’m still working on this, but I do think I’ve gotten better at letting go and not being afraid of failure.

Any artists or work you admire?
There are a lot of artists who I admire. My 3 clay heros are probably Martha Grover, Deb Schwartzkopf, and Doug Peltzman. I am lucky to have taken workshops with some really incredible people since I began this journey 9 years ago such as; Kristen Kieffer, Doug Peltzman, Tom Coleman, Steven Lee, Brenda Quinn, Molly Hatch, Jen Allen…the list is long. I think each and every one of them has had some sort of influence on me in different ways. I would be remiss if I didn’t mention some of the amazing residents and instructors I’ve also had the privilege to study under at CAC over the years; Cory Brown, Lindsay Scypta, Andrew Coombs, Mike Stumbras, Keiko Ashida, Georgia Tenore, Jeanne Carreau, these people all really helped me get to the next level with my work, and I’m lucky to call many of them my friends.

How has your expertise as a designer affected your ceramic aesthetic style?
I think my expertise as a designer has naturally led me to explore surface design and decoration. Lines, geometry, pattern, balance, repetition; these are all themes that are consistent in my work. I think being a designer makes me quite detail oriented, and so my surfaces are refined, clean, and orderly as a result. Designers are also inherently problem solvers. I like being given a set of parameters and figuring out how my work can fit into those. As an idea’s person, I’m consistently moving forward and focused on the next discovery and how it can evolve my work.

And vice versa? How does being a ceramicist affect your artistic sensibilities in other fields?
I feel like I’ve gotten more relaxed as a result of working with clay. I’ll break out of the box more than I used to. Both fields have different sets of challenges and restraints, but I feel like clay has prepared me to deal with change and adaption even more for my design work.

Petals Mishima Jar, wheel-thrown, altered and assembled, Porcelain, Cone 6 & Cone 018 gold luster, 2020

Tools or tips you’d like to recommend for making delicate decorations?
My favorite tool is my X-acto, but I’ve been expanding my toolset lately and I’m finding some joy in really small carving tools as well. I think for decorations to be delicate the two most important considerations are scale, and balance. I’d say to start there. I apply similar thoughts to my ceramics as I would to a web design or printed material. Think about how the eye moves around the piece, leave pauses and moments of air or breathing room, and think about how you can use glazes to break up the piece further by using color.

Any happy ceramics accident that happened in the studio?
HA! I think I’m too calculated for happy accidents! But I did have a breakthrough not too long ago, where I tried one of my usual stamps in a totally new configuration and it has really allowed the work to take on a new life and direction. I’m excited when things like that happen! That goes back to that idea of constantly moving forward and evolving that I was mentioning earlier.

What have you been doing to stay positive and creative amidst what has been going on?
I set up a makeshift home studio in my apartment, but I haven’t actually made anything yet. My former career has uniquely positioned me to be able to weather these times. I’ve been working online remotely and in virtual ways for many years. So, what I’ve been focused on these last few weeks is helping some galleries get their exhibitions up online! The art world is reeling from this pandemic, and so I’m trying to use my design experience to help solve challenges organizations didn’t face just a few weeks ago.

Petals Vase, wheel-thrown, Porcelain, Cone 6 & Cone 018, 2020

Here is Jess’s Artist Statement:

Artist Statement
My work explores the intersection of design, art, and fine craft through functional wheel-thrown pots. I seek to elevate these objects by balancing form and decoration with a focus on design. My former career as a Creative Director and Designer has greatly influenced my approach to clay. My designer's mind boils everything down to geometry, line, pattern, repetition, and color. I draw influences from architecture, botanicals and nature, and historical and graphic patterns.

I am a highly detail-oriented person, for this reason, my medium of choice is porcelain. The clean smooth surface gives me a perfect canvas for the delicate details I employ. Incised lines are used to create patterns that are at once contemporary and yet signal to more luxurious design periods from the past. Slip trailed dots add a tactile quality and stamped and carved details allow for glazes to pool and run creating movement.

Soft colors and contrasting matte and shiny glaze surfaces are common in my work. My pots are approached individually with variations on the surface design themes making each one unique from the next. Gold luster adorns the objects as a way to elevate them from every day to exquisite.

Artist BIO

Jess Palmer is a studio potter living and working in Port Chester, NY. She received a BFA in Communication Design from SUNY Buffalo. After leaving her full-time career as a Creative Director in advertising Jess discovered a new medium of clay. Jess’s work has been published in the May/June 2019 issue of Pottery Making Illustrated and the September 2018 issue of Ceramics Monthly. She has shown her work in both juried and national invitational exhibitions at; The Clay Studio, PA.; Flower City Arts Center, NY.; Clay Art Center, NY.; Baltimore Clayworks, MD., Clay Arts Vegas, NV, Charlie Cummings Gallery, Fl, Silvermine Arts Center, CT.

You can see more of Jess’s lovely work in CAC’s NCECA 2020 Virtual Expo and online shop, or her social media platforms, listed below.

Instagram: @jesspalmerceramics
Website: www.jesspalmerceramics.com
Facebook: facebook.com/jesspalmerceramics