Juana Gnecco

"I grew up in Bogota, Colombia, surrounded by handmade objects and with a love of working with my hands. I started making pots after moving to Athens Ga., and discovering the wonderful pots made in the area, which seemed to always be present whenever friends would gather to share food. After a decade and a half of making pots full time, I’m still inspired by how pottery brings warmth and connection to our daily lives. 

My work is also influenced by the simple forms of terra-cotta and black clay tableware I encountered in markets when living in  Colombia and Southern Mexico. My forms are either thrown and altered, or hand built, and, these days, I fire my work in an electric kiln. The contrast of a dark clay body and white slips provides me with many opportunities for surface decoration; from simple geometric brush strokes around a pot, to my more detailed sgraffito drawings of things encountered in my semi-urban landscape. I also use different resist techniques to add or subtract botanical or geometric designs for low-contrast, monochromatic motifs under a white or a copper green glaze. All of these techniques complement and inform each other, creating a playfully varied body of work of pots made for candles, flowers, and food."