"Clay Life"

An exhibition of stoneware and porcelain by JON and TESSY PETTYJOHN

Since the last successful exhibition of their works in 2009 at the Alliance Francaise de Manille’s Total Gallery, this dynamic couple has had several other exhibitions, each time pushing the limits of their material and their craft to new heights.  Theirs is a difficult medium to master, and when they surrender weeks of work to the high-temperature kiln when they fire, they are not always certain how many will be lost, and how many will be blessed by the fire and come out even better than they expected.

In their Artists’ Statement, Jon writes:

Tessy and I have been working together for more than thirty years now. We see this exhibition as a celebration of our life in clay. We feel blessed and privileged to wake up everyday and pursue our passion and we hope our new work reflects this.

Lately we sometimes hear people refer to us as master potters. This always makes us smile internally because we don’t, nor would we ever want, to feel any sense of mastery of our craft. Every day we continue to discover new things about ourselves and our materials. It would take more than one lifetime to become a “master”. This is what keeps us fascinated.

We also feel that clay and fire and the process of making pottery has a life of its own. It’s interesting too that there are currently scientific theories that life on earth may have evolved inside of clay molecules. The Book of Genesis reaffirms this stating that clay was the material God used to create Adam and  Eve. Some of our recent works, especially Tessy’s, are inspired by biological forms.  

Jon and Tessy Pettyjohn’s exhibition “Clay Life” opens on Thursday, November 3, 2011, at the Alliance Française Total Gallery of the Alliance Française de Manille.  The exhibit runs until November 28, 2011.  Alliance Française de Manille is located at 209 Nicanor Garcia St. formerly Reposo St.) Bel-Air 2, Makati City. For more details, you can visit the AFM website at www.alliance.ph.

Gallery days and hours:
Monday to Thursday, 9am to 6pm; Friday and Saturday, 9am to 5pm; and closed on Sundays and Holidays.