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Tonya L. Johnson
Medias Used or Areas of Interest:
Ceramics
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I first discovered clay while sitting on a creek bank in a farming community outside Detroit, Michigan. As I sat, I dug into the hard, dry top crust, through several layers of silt and sand, and into a layer of dark, gray paste that I intuitively identified as clay. I pried out a handful and sat back on the bank, instinctively pinching and squeezing out the shape of a small pot. I was nine years old. Today, I am still drawn to this fascinating material from which I make functional pottery.
I began studying ceramics in 1992 at the University of Louisville while completing my B.A. in biology. In 1999 I received my M.A. in ceramics. Since completing my degree, I have been using both stoneware and porcelain to create hand-built and wheel-thrown functional pottery. In our time, machine-manufactured utilitarian pieces are inexpensive and plentiful. However, I believe a persons life is made richer by the use of handmade things in his or her everyday life. Therefore, as a potter my goal is to make pieces that someone would find both aesthetically pleasing as well as conveniently useful, and as an artist my work reflects who I am and what is significant to me. Thus, my pieces are large, sturdy, generous forms that capture and hold intentional marks in the malleable clay. Just as a sunken, sun-baked footprint tells a viewer that it was made while once soft and wet, I am leaving a record of what is important to me in the stone-like permanence of gas-fired porcelain and stoneware.
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