Jennifer Graff
Phone:
706-247-6967 (Cell) 706-316-6816
Email:
jgraff73@yahoo.com
Biography & Artist's Statement:
I knew as a child that I would become an artist. My interest
in creating was heavily influenced by my grandmother who was
a painter and art collector. I attended art school at Alfred
University in Alfred, New York where I earned a B.F.A. in
ceramics and painting. After graduating, I worked as a
production potter’s apprentice in my home state of
Pennsylvania. Soon after my apprenticeship, I moved to Ann
Arbor, Michigan where I was hired to manage the Ann Arbor
Art Center’s ceramics studio. For four years, I was
responsible for the overall management and maintenance of
the studio and gained experience in teaching wheel throwing,
hand-building, and glaze formulation courses. The pursuit of
a graduate degree brought me south to Athens, Georgia where
I earned a M.F.A. from the University of Georgia. I then
worked for two years as an assistant at Haystack Mountain
School of Crafts in Deer Isle, Maine. For the next several
years, I earned a living as a studio potter and taught in
various ceramic centers in the region. I am currently an
Assistant Professor of Art at Gainesville State College in
Gainesville, Georgia where I teach ceramics and foundation
level art courses.
During my time as a graduate student, I
concentrated primarily on creating large-scale figurative
sculptures. My inclinations as a painter found their way
into the surfaces of the sculptural work.
For the past few years the majority of
my work has been functional pottery. Pots keep me connected
to the material of clay, and help me to maintain a strong
sense of form and volume in all of my work. My interests in
sculptural forms and surfaces inform my pottery. The pieces
are considered from foot to lip, in the round, and in
profile. I balance function with whimsical form and subtle
manipulations. The lines in the colorful glaze designs echo
the movements of the clay to achieve a fusion between
surface and object.
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