Jo's Art Works

click to enlarge Jo is deeply drawn to sculptural works and often expresses her individuality through her amazing fully-formed three-dimensional raku fish. Each one is individually crafted. She never uses moulds for any of these pieces, preferring instead to feel her way through the clay to a realistic expression of the wonders of the ocean. She says that snorkelling allows you to see wonderful striations of light and water on the fish, and her raku firings attempt to bring this beauty to the fore.
click to enlarge
 
click to enlarge
  Jo also enjoys architectural ceramics, creating regular and three-dimensional tiles for bathrooms, kitchens, and even entryways. Her current work also includes whimsical garden art, from sculpture through to hand-crafted plant tags.
   
   
More About Jo  
  As a child, growing up in North Queensland, Australia, Jo recalls countless hours spent pouring water onto the dry red clay earth to form it into amazingly organic shapes that would bake dry under the hot tropical sun. It was her first introduction to the delights of clay. Unable to get to the potters wheel in high school, Jo elected to take private lessons with Jerry Balint. She soon followed those lessons with academic courses in glazing, throwing and hand-building at Sir Sandford Fleming College in Lindsay. After returning to university full-time in 1981, Jo pursued a minor in fine arts. She has an honours BA in English (1986) and an MA in English (1989) from the University of Waterloo. Her work is collected by admirers the world over and has been shown in a number of galleries. Like Vic, she now chooses to sell from her studio, or through the Pottery Store in Chemainus.