Jenni Ward, sculptor, art instructor and owner of the Earth Art Studio, creates organic forms made from ceramic and wire. Her delicate and beautiful forms are abstract studies of the natural world – seeds, pollens, bones, shells and entomology. Ward’s sculptures are delicate and sensitive asymmetrical pieces that are simple three-dimensional compositions that deal with shape, color, texture and movement.

Ward is not a ceramicist, but a sculptor who uses clay as her primary medium, marrying it beautifully with various gages of wire.

She exhibits her work nationally and, for nearly a decade, has participated in the Santa Cruz County Open Studios Art Tour. Her work has also been included in exhibitions at the Santa Cruz Museum of Art and History, the De Saisset Museum and the American Museum of Ceramic Arts.

Could you please introduce yourself? What motivated you to become an Artist? When did you create your first piece of purposeful Art that is etched in your memory?
I am a ceramic sculptor, teacher and owner of Earth Art Studio. I create modern, abstract ceramic sculptures and have shown my work locally and nationally for over 15 years. I teach clay classes to all ages and levels and I share the world of art through philanthropic projects around the world. People often ask how long I’ve been an artist and I have to say since I was a child- we all make art as children, I just never stopped.

Do you see your work as sculpture or ceramics or a delicate fusion between both. You certainly use a traditional medium in an unconventional manner. Did you start as a Sculptor or a Ceramist and has this been a conscious decision to fuse these disciplines together?
I describe my work as ceramic sculpture.  Historically clay has been used to make pottery, figurative work and industrial materials, but for me it is a malleable material with unlimited uses and properties. I enjoy the process of working with clay; the drying time, the firing process, the chance that everything can go wrong at any moment. I love that clay has boundaries and rules that can be pushed, it makes it a very alluring and challenging material.

What artists and influences have driven your work and why?
I love the work of Andy Goldsworthy, Dale Chihuly, Ruth Asawa, Georgia O’Keeffe, Egon Schiele- artists from all disciplines and times. I love the attention to form, line, color and the balance of all of those elements in very simple executions.

What’s your favourite thing you’ve ever created and why? What makes one piece successful over another?
I don’t have a favorite piece, my work is a constant evolution of ideas, concepts and techniques. There is never an ending moment in my work that says ‘I’m done, this is the best I can do,’ there is always something better, some more successful way to execute an idea. It is always that search that brings me back into the studio every day.

Where do you hope to take your work in the next few years?
I’ve recently starting to taking finished pieces of work and putting them back to the spaces in nature where they were originally inspired from and documenting them in these spaces. I think of it as returning my captive art back into the wild. I’m hoping to explore this concept more with my art.

In 2005, Jenni Ward opened Earth Art Studio; a sculpture studio offering clay and mixed media sculpture classes and workshops for children, teens and adults. She has also spent much of her time working with Haitian artists and offering art education to schools and orphanages in Haiti. In addition to teaching, she has been creating, showing and selling her own sculptures since graduating from University of Hartford-Hartford Art School with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in 1998.

All images courtesy of Jenni Ward | www.jenniward.com

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