Jim Jansma

Jansma’s vessels and wall panels take their cue from nature, including their surface textures (cracks and crevices evoke bark) and their shapes (a long-necked rounded bottle recalls a stem and bulb).  Less visible is the intensity of the artistic process; multiple firings in the kiln and numerous reglazes give each surface its complexity. Jansma says: “Aesthetically, I intend the heavily built and glazed surfaces to reveal the ‘act of making.’ Ultimately, my work is a response to nature, not an attempt to represent it realistically, but a way to emulate natural processes.”

Jansma, who received his BFA from the Kansas City Art Institute and his MFA from the New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University, served on the visual arts faculty at Princeton University where he taught ceramics from 1992-2003. He’s a four-time Fellowship recipient from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts, most recently in 2018. He lives and maintains a studio where he resides in Hopewell, NJ.