Evelyn Jordan is a New Orleans-based artist and ceramicist working and teaching in a studio uptown.

There’s a meandering exploration with the kinds of work I do with clay. My functional work—wheel thrown teapots, teacups, bowls, dinnerware—has both an aesthetic and a practical concern. A contented relationship between user and object is paramount. Thus, the fit of a cup’s handle to the hand, the pour of a spout, fit of a lid, heft of a plate coupled with elegance of form are my concerns.

At a certain point in making functional work, my attention inevitably moves towards alteration, experimentation with surface and form. While the chase for a form remains, a spirit of generosity and allowance begins. The importance of function becomes secondary to form, playfulness, surface, mystery, fun. I may explore a shape for awhile until this too gives way to the more formal investigation of content and form together which, for me, is sculpture.

For me, sculpture has a poetic, essential concern. If my work can spark a moment of active imagination in the viewer then I feel successful. If I can create a deepened experience of mystery then, I’m starting to do my job.