Jeannine Calcagno Niehaus
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| Jeannine has been a working studio potter for over 30
years. She studied painting at San Jose State University and
received a B.A. in 1972, and a Secondary Teaching Credential in
1973. It was an earlier brush with clay in a freshman class that
most inspired her and by the mid-seventies she had given up a teaching
job, moved to Santa Cruz and set up her first ceramics studio. Since
that time she has sold her work almost exclusively at juried Fine Arts and
Crafts shows throughout Central California, preferring the direct contact
with the people that buy and use her pieces. For five consecutive
years Jeannine received the "Artist's Hall of Fame" status at
San Jose's Tapestry in Talent Labor Day art show.
It was a childhood surrounded by California farmland that inspired this artist to use clay as a medium and her mother's exquisite flower garden that gave rise to the decorative motifs. Study trips to both Japan and China have influenced her choices of form and style. So much so that she sells at many of the Bay area Asian art and cultural festivals. Although Jeannine has worked in porcelain and has raku fired for many years, she is now mostly throwing with a high-fire stoneware. Using squeeze bottles and brushes, she applies colored clay slip (liquid clay) to still damp forms to achieve a raised texture. The pots are bisqued, or partially fired, then glaze is applied to make only the areas desired glossy. The final firing reaches over 2300 degrees in a gas kiln. By closing the damper at the appropriate time, the kiln is put into a reduction atmosphere, thus giving the unglazed portions of the pot a rich toasty color. It is this interplay with the raw texture of the unglazed clay next to the raised glossy decoration that gives Jeannine's work it's distinction. |
