Featured Artist: Jayson Lawfer

Jayson Lawfer is a potter and director of an online art gallery and art-consulting business entitled The Nevica Project. 

Artist Statement:

It is important for a teabowl or cup to engage with the user a sense of existence and duty. I feel that in the world we live today, where many objects are mass-produced and without thought, a handmade ceramic pot reveals something more. It reveals a sense of dedication and determination by the creator to release artistic thought and meet the demands of practical purpose.

The atmosphere of soda and wood firings engulf my senses. I wonder and study about how flashing patterns, wood ash deposits, and glaze colors are formed and challenge myself to find answers. I do so knowing that some of these answers are left unknown within the special life that lives and breathes inside each kiln.

Passion lives within everybody. Mine is the momentum of clay.

more on Jayson:
After graduating from the University of Montana, Jayson completed an artist residency at Guldagergard in Denmark, The Archie Bray Foundation, A.I.R. Vallauris in Vallauris, France, and Lillstreet Art Center. His work has been featured in prestige American exhibitions at the Lancaster Museum of Art, Missoula Art Museum, Cedar Rapids Museum of Art and New Hampshire Institute of Art. His pottery has been selected for the Totally Teabowl exhibition in England, the Sydney Meyer Fund International Ceramic Award in Australia and The Salzbrand competition in Germany. The American Society of Ceramics awarded Jayson one of the "2005 Emerging Artists of the Year".

From 2002-2006, Jayson was the Executive Director of The Clay Studio of Missoula, Gallery Director of its exhibition space and Resident Director of its artist-in-residence program. He was a Resident Artist and Guest Curator at Lillstreet Art Center in Chicago, Illinois from 2006-2007 and their Executive Director of the nonprofit sector of Lillstreet from 2010 - 2011. Jayson’s talents of being an artist and holding positions of directorship have granted him the opportunity to present lectures and lead workshops in Mexico, Italy and in the USA.