Dallas County
Potter/Fused
Glass
Jo Taylor is
a potter and a fused glass artist. She doesn’t dig or process her clay, but
purchases clay bodies that can take the thermal shock of Raku firing.” I don’t
know how long it takes to create one piece because there are several steps from
start to completion on the pottery pieces, as well as the glass pieces. It also
depends on the size of the piece and whether it was either a hand built pottery
piece or a thrown pottery piece. Glass pieces have to be cut, assembled, glued,
fused, fired in a kiln and, possibly, slump fired in a mold to take on a form.
I have never timed it,” she said.
Speaking
with enthusiasm, Jo described her education leading up to her college degrees.”
I had to take a Ceramic Hand-building class when I was working on an art
education degree in the 1990’s.I found working in clay fascinating because what
could be created in clay was virtually endless. It was also three-dimensional
and the most challenging media I had ever worked with. I enjoy the challenge of
trying to get a pottery piece through all the steps successfully and seeing the
metamorphosis of a lump of clay turned into a piece of art. What a kicker it is
when all goes good!”
Jo received
a B.S. in Art Education from Auburn University in Montgomery
in 1998 and taught one year. While auditing classes at the University of Montevallo,
her sculpture professor, Ted Metz, suggested that she return to school and get
a Bachelor of Fine Arts.” That is exactly what I did,” said Jo.In 2005, after
working 30 hours a week in Selma,
commuting to Montevallo to take one or two classes a semester, Jo graduated,
again. According to Jo “It was worth all the hard work.”
Always
active, Jo attended workshops with the potters and clay artists Rick Berman,
Lana Wilson, Charlie and Linda Riggs, and Val Cushing. In discussing her other
talents, Jo has created watercolor and oil paintings, drawings, etchings and
prints, cast bronze sculptures and sheet metal sculptures.