About Muddy Jean

My name is Jeanette, and I am always muddy.

My muds of choice are soil and clay.  I have been gardening my whole life, but I began playing with clay in the fall of 2024.  I took a ceramics class with my daughter, and fell in love with wheel-throwing, then hand-building.

Working with clay at Ventura College, Santa Paula Cole Creative Center, and my own home studio in Camarillo, California leaves me covered in mud.

Throwing on the wheel, learning what different clay bodies will produce fascinates me. I find it very satisfying to develop unique ways of building and creating artistic and functional pieces.  

Sometimes you can find me in the wild, searching for mud to play with in the studio, or studying plants .

I am fascinated by the translation of energy and movement into a solid, un-moving piece of ceramics.  My goal is to create a piece that can show it's history of creation; that can demonstrate fluidity and grace and potential, while remaining solid and still.

In addition to the concept of capturing motion, , my work is a study of the contrast of negative and positive space.  This contrast plays out in the final shapes of the pieces I create, as well as the colours and textures used on these pieces.

Empty space is important in allowing us to appreciate what we see and touch.

I also love creating pottery pieces for plants.  Currently I am focused on vessels for succulents and kokedama, connecting clay and soil.

Sharing what I am creating and watching plants grow in my ceramic creations brings me so much joy!