It’s about connection.
Jessa Decker-Smith began working in clay at Mars Hill College in 1997. After graduating from Mars Hill in 2000 with a degree in Communication, she continued her work in clay at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, TN, Penland School of Craft in Penland, NC, and at East Tennessee State University in Johnson City TN, where she was awarded her Master of Fine Arts in Ceramics in December of 2004.
To everything there is a season and 2007-2011 was the season of babies. Though she went to unload a kiln on her way to the hospital to deliver their first child, and made pots with said child strapped to her body for the next year and a half – the season of babies was not good for pottery. So during that season, Decker-Smith Pottery hung up its apron.
But now, all those babies are children. They know about avoiding kilns and fire and they know about the fragility of greenware and how to stay safe in a pottery studio. The season of pottery is returned!
Though her work is constantly evolving, Jessa creates a wide range of household and serving pottery, tea service pieces, liturgical pottery, and her newest exploration…fountains!
Jessa lives in Denver, CO with her husband Eric, who also has been known to dabble in pottery, and their three children.
Artist’s Statement
On a Wednesday morning not long ago, a woman drove up to me on the street, rolled down her passenger side window and told me her son drank orange juice that morning out of a cup I made for a local coffeehouse. That is why my work exists. I want someone’s child to enjoy juice out of one of my cups. I create work for people to take into their homes and use to feed their families.
My work exists as I hope I do,
to add brightness and ease to life,
to assist,
to serve,
to comfort,
to celebrate,
to enliven.
My work is constantly influenced by innumerable stimuli. Outwardly, many of my forms and designs are inspired by the forms and designs of the art and architecture of India. Inwardly, as I create, I take into account how a child’s small hand might maneuver a lid on a cookie jar, or how to best create a tea setting to invite a whole family to have tea together.