Johannette Rowley

Johannette Rowley was born in Seattle, Washington and moved to Hawaii in 1973. She received her BFA in Ceramics from the University of Hawaii at Manoa in 1999. Rowley was a later-in-life student, and while going to school, she was also working full time. This presented both challenges and gifts. The greatest challenge was a lack of time, and having to balance work life, home life and student/studio life. However, since she was an older student, Rowley felt more confident in her ability to explore and experiment, which continues to affect her work even now. She fell in love making her own glazes and testing unusual surfaces. As a mature student, she already had some life experience, and that helped her to develop her voice. She has always been drawn to figurative ceramics because of its ability to convey emotion – to spark joy, laughter, recognition, curiosity. Her work also explores concepts of beauty – what defines it, who defines it, what makes it so? Is it an inner quality or is it based on an external set of rigid guidelines? Rowley’s work (like herself) can be quirky and imperfect, but that’s the part that she loves.