I became an artist later in life – I didn’t discover clay until my late thirties and I’ve found that age has informed my work in unanticipated ways. Time has given me more personal knowledge, a greater willingness to experiment, and a degree of patience I didn’t have in my youth. I know what I like. I know what I value. I can appreciate the way I work, and build my practice around my own habits rather than shoehorning myself into a place I don’t fit.
That kind of personal knowledge is invaluable to an artist, and it wasn’t available to me 20 years ago. I hadn’t yet seen enough of the world, or myself. I have now. I didn’t have anything to say then. I do now.
My introduction to ceramics was through the incomparable program at Tacoma Community College. I’ve taken classes with the head of the ceramics department, Rick Mahaffey, and although I’ve not completed a degree there, the coursework was an excellent jumping off point for my own self study and subsequent progression as an artist.
Exhibit / Grant History
● Modern Womxn, 2019 (Tacoma)
● Tacoma Artists Initiative Program Grant, 2019/2020
● Elevation (invited artist), 2021 Bellingham
● 18th Annual Ceramics Invitational, Abel Contemporary Gallery, 2021, Stoughton
Hi, I’m Kristina Batiste, the potter behind Juniper Clay. I run a one woman studio in the Pacific Northwest.
My forms are made to be both seen and used: cups, plates, bowls, object that speak to their purpose. I also explore the conceptual satisfaction of repetition; the possibilities revealed in variations on a theme. Some ideas only fully emerge after the tenth (or hundredth) time you’ve made an object, and reveal the beauty in traditional, functional pottery. Overall, I want to make honest objects that can be used to elevate everyday experiences.
Primary Medium: porcelain and stoneware, oxidation cone 6 firing. Technique: wheel thrown and hand built functional forms.