FRANK JACQUES

Clay is this magically engaging vehicle for utility and expression. I love its democracy. I love that it can be a brick or a urinal or a teacup.

I grew up in the Bay Area and cut my artistic teeth at Humboldt State University (BA Zoology, 1985), during the Funk-Art movement. I took inspiration from Robert Arneson, Lou Marak, Richard Shaw, and Patti Warashina (who was one of my teachers during my MFA program at the University of Washington in 1997). And it shows.

I like clay for its cheeky possibilities and narrative potential but, you know, I also really appreciate an honest pot. I am constantly exploring that intersection. I want people to think my pots are funny or cool too but I also want people to know they are well-made and coming from a place of experience and craft. I am pretty serious about being light.

I am so lucky to live on a needy chunk of beautiful land in Talent, Oregon with my partner, an overgrown pasture, and a curious menagerie of loveable creatures furred and feathered. When I’m not in my studio or repairing kilns, I am usually fixing or scooping something on our property, talking about politics with anyone who will listen, or trail running with my border collie Roo.