Oct. 29, 2024
When Joel Blackburn was pursuing pottery as a young artist, there was an exhibition he kept hearing: Strictly Functional Pottery National.
“Everyone would talk about Strictly Functional as a premier, top exhibition in ceramics,” said Blackburn. “To be juried into it was a dream, and I’m so grateful that it’s happened twice.”
Blackburn was juried into Strictly Functional Pottery National, a nationwide juried competition of 75-100 functional pottery pieces submitted by the top ceramics artists in the country. Blackburn is a professional ceramics artist, primarily working with functional, woodfired pottery. He’s been throwing pieces for nearly two decades in and out of the classroom.
For the second year in a row, Blackburn’s work has been selected for one of the nation’s premier ceramics exhibitions.
“I’ve always been intentional about being an artist who teaches, not just an art teacher,” said Blackburn. “I share my work and my process with my students. If I’m getting ready for a show or submitting to an exhibit, I tell my students that. They know when I submit, they know when I’ve been selected and when I’ve not. That’s a real-world experience for my students to learn what it truly means to be a working artist.”
Blackburn is the Visual Art department head and ceramics and sculpture teacher at Kickapoo, teaching Ceramics and Sculpture I, Ceramics and Sculpture II, AP Art and Design and Art Foundations. He credits his ongoing success as an artist to the many teachers and mentors he’s had throughout the years, his core group of ceramics colleagues in the local clay community, and the support from his wife, Jessica Blackburn, a highly talented illustrator and fellow art teacher at Glendale High School.
But it’s his students, and their commitment to learning in spite of failure, that inspires Blackburn to keep teaching and pursuing artistic excellence.
“Learning pottery is one of the hardest experiences a student may have in high school,” said Blackburn. “Everyone is bad at this when they first start throwing. But you just keep getting better, and then you fail. You get better, and you fail. You develop resiliency, problem-solving skills, confidence, and creativity. Through failures come successes as long as you’re willing to keep going and try new things. Every art class teaches students those essential life skills.”
