Joy Tanner

Joy Tanner at MudFire

Gallery group show Put A Lid On It, May 2007
Gallery group show Asheville in Atlanta, October 2006
Gallery group show Teapots A-Go-Go, April 2006

About Joy Tanner

Joy Tanner discovered her connection to clay in college while she was trying to decide what career path to take. Her varied interests in botany, geology, special education, music, and photography led her in many directions. However, as soon as she took her first ceramics course, her focus changed and it was not long before she knew she wanted to be a potter. Joy received her Bachelors of Fine Arts degree in Ceramics and Sculpture at the University of Tennessee in Chattanooga. In her courses she focused on functional wheel thrown stoneware that was fired in the soda kiln. Joy's mixed media sculpture courses were extremely beneficial to her in learning how she could correlate her conceptual ideas behind her work and bring those ideas into the creation of her functional pots. Growing up in eastern Tennessee, she was introduced to the beauty of nature by hiking with her family. She grew a connection to this region and all the minute details she observed in the mountains. Photography has played an important role in recording her observations of nature so they can be preserved into her clay forms through various textures and patterns.

During college Joy was a clay technician at the Chattanooga Parks and Recreation Arts and Culture Clay Studio. This internship taught her how to maintain and organize a clay studio by helping students, mixing glazes, and firing kilns. She also discovered she enjoyed teaching wheel throwing and began private lessons and workshops. Currently, Joy is a Resident Artist at the Odyssey Center for the Ceramic Arts in Asheville, North Carolina. This residency is a two year program providing emerging artists with a community studio that aids them in their progress as an artist. Being at Odyssey has been extremely influential for Joy since she has been able to focus deeply on her work and transition into being a full time studio potter. During this time she has been teaching classes, working for studio potters in the area, exhibiting in group shows, and was recently accepted into the Southern Highland Craft Guild. Joy uses stoneware clays to create functional wheel thrown forms that she fires in a salt or wood kiln. She relies on the variations from the salt and ash that filters onto the clay to reveal details she has observed in nature.

Joy Tanner Artist Statement

The textures from wood, the ripples of water rushing over rocks, or the warm tones from autumn are a few of the qualities referenced in my work. By preserving my reflections of nature into clay, I want to bring an awareness of the temporality and fragility of nature around us. I create wheel thrown functional forms and hand built decorative pieces using stoneware clays. Carving and impressing textures into the clay yields endless variation once the pots are fired in a salt or wood kiln. Even though there is careful control in making the work, the final fired pieces can yield unpredictable results. This degree of chance in the process of creation and firing keeps me yearning to explore.

Cradling a cup or bowl in hand, I welcome the user to connect with the clay through the subtle textures. I concentrate on the curve or fullness of a form, the comfortable feeling of a rim or handle, tonal variations on the surface, and the rhythms that occur in the textures. These individual elements are treated similarly to how I observe nature. At first glance my eyes are unable to focus on the variety in nature surrounding me. However, the little details are what I am attracted to, such as the way a leaf is connected to its stem, the softness of a seed enclosed in its shell, or the patterns of filtered light. These small components that reveal such variations are what I feel can bring vitality and energy to a piece of pottery. Bringing these details into closer view, I hope each handmade piece I have created is seen and felt as being unique.