Janice Joplin

Sharing a name with another, rather famous artist of an earlier era, San Antonio artist Janice Joplin is quickly becoming widely-known and respected, in her own right, as one of South Texas’ most-important interpreters of clay.

Janice was one of San Antonio College’s first graduates of a produced- pottery program. From there, she went on to earn an Associates Degree from SAC in Fine Arts.

As part of the requirements of this program, she apprenticed with several noted local potters, including the V.R. Hood Clay Co.

While her first love is clay, Janice is a noted painter and works with other media frequently, including metal and glass. Her varied works are sought after and owned by collectors on an international basis, as well as right here in South Texas.

Area museums have displayed her work and a number of major South Texas art shows and festivals have featured the art of Janice Joplin, including the prestigious Texas Clay Festival, held annually in Gruene, Texas.

Her work has benefited such major concerns as the M.D. Anderson Children’s Cancer Clinic as she donated a life-sized cow—painted in Janice’s noted ‘Fun Seeker’ motif—to their Houston Cow Parade, held in 2001. She’ll be bringing another surprise, and another donation to the local community, during this year’s San Antonio Cow Parade!

Johnson’s figurative work is slab built or cast. She uses a unique process of drawing on the bisque fired clay with underglaze pencils and pastels. Her recent work incorporates a wax and underglaze technique that reflects an influence from printmaking. Her unconventional use of materials has also led her to use oil paints on bisque.

“My ceramic containers have evolved from television sets, to boxes with obelisks, which act as pedestals for endangered creatures, to a series of personal disasters at sea. One development in the series, which I see as reliquaries, is that their design reflects a period of primitive Central Texas houses, “said Johnson’s artistic statement.

“The house shapes put the environment on a personal level, like the home and upon them places the bigger context of earth as home. My paintings on them comment on environmental issues affecting the area.”

Her concerns for the activities around her have evolved into a very personal dialog on her recent divorce. She uses water and boats as metaphors.

Her artist statement goes on to explain, “My personal life is revealed in my work.  A major life change has occurred in my world and I have used my art as an attempt to unveil my fears and desires. I try to show the fine line between seen and the unseen, humor and sadness, and right and wrong.

Creating art helps me clarify what I feel and believe. Be it a social, political statement or a personal one. The ritual of making the work in clay creates a balance in me, hopefully, producing a similar effect on the viewer

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The images I make of the boat come from the use of words and phrases that influence my work; like ‘keeping your head above water, we’re in the same boat, and up a creek without a paddle.’ I also draw inspiration from art history where the boat has many metaphors and allegorical meaning.

Again, events in my life make the boat a perfect image to play with for a body of work based on this journey we call life.”