Nancy Jurs has been an artist for over 50 years. I learned about her through my ceramics class, and i’ve taken quite a liking to her work. She started as a traditional potter working with raku glazing techniques before taking on more conceptual work.

When I first saw some of Nancy Jurs pieces I didn’t really like them. Some seemed rather boxy and clumpy; I didn’t like some of the colors or the animal designs. But looking further into her work I started to find ones I liked more, I appreciated the glazes, forms, craftsmanship, and the inspirations behind her work.

The colors and the simple form in her double thrown bowls are very interesting to me. I like the colors and painterly quality of them, they remind me of the brush strokes on Hamada’s work. I prefer some of her later work as opposed to her more recent. In her black series, I really appreciate the subtlety in the use of color and the emotion behind each of the forms, especially the ones that resemble clothing and armor. Her final series I will discuss is her goddesses’ collection. These works show very interesting forms, some more representational than others.. Her work is also inspired a lot by feminist themes which I like a lot.