“My Journey with Porcelain” by Ceramicist Jennifer McCurdy

This talk by renowned American ceramicist Jennifer McCurdy will be an illustrated journey through the artist’s 40+ years as a professional potter. Through photos and videos, McCurdy will talk about her specific creation process and its evolution and share personal stories from her career as an artist in clay.

Jennifer McCurdy became interested in pottery because of her grandmother, a watercolorist and flower arranger who collected unusual vases. McCurdy graduated from Michigan State University in 1978 with a BFA and moved to Boca Raton, where she took graduate classes at Florida Atlantic University. She specialized in porcelain and created functional pieces such as mugs, mixing bowls, and wall sconces. Eventually, she began to create sculptural objects, adding movement and line to the basic sphere shape, and removing bits of clay from the form. She acknowledges that the carving was only possible once she had developed and refined her clay-throwing ability. McCurdy works in a studio adjacent to her home on Martha’s Vineyard, constantly playing with new firing techniques and pushing the limits of the medium and her ability. Her work can be found in museums throughout the United States, including the Smithsonian’s Renwick Gallery; the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; the Everson Museum of Art, Syracuse; the Minneapolis Museum of Art; the Newark Museum of Art, Newark, New Jersey; and the Philadelphia Museum of Art. 

Image: Gilded Coral Nest, 2020, porcelain and gold leaf, 7 x 12 x 12 in.