By Nancy E. McCarthy
Bristol potter Jessie Marianacci Valone launched JMV Ceramics soon after graduating college in 2016. The Keuka Arts Festival was her first art show and she won Best in Show right out of the gate. Valone modestly characterized the win as a “you’re in the right direction kind of sign.”
She’s kept moving in the right direction. Last year, she won Best in Ceramics at Christkindl Market in Canandaigua and at the MacKenzie-Childs Artisan Craft Festival in Aurora.
Valone’s pottery is both utilitarian and beautiful. All are lovingly created by hand using a potter’s wheel and a variety of hand building techniques. Valone favors cool tones – blues, greens, grays, white and black – and is inspired by plants, coastlines, trees, rivers, rocks, shells, sea glass and skyscapes.
Whitney Unrath of Canandaigua was an early admirer of Valone’s work. She’s now a steady customer and enthusiastic collector. “I came across Jessie many years ago when she just started out doing art shows,” said Unrath. “Right away I fell in love with the unique pieces of functional art she made, and I had to have my first piece. Now I have too many pieces to count: vases, dishes, bowls, mugs, candle holders, large serving pieces.”
Valone’s style has evolved from geometric patterns to botanical and floral designs – sometimes a combination of both. She also produces collections featuring seasonal motifs. Her skill and passion as a maker is surprising because, although Valone was always drawn to the arts, she never aspired to be a pottery artist.
The right direction
Valone grew up in Bloomfield, the oldest of three siblings. Her parents were artistic: her father is a wood carver and her mother painted. Valone was physically active and had lots of interests from art, crafts and reading to swimming, dance and soccer. In high school she particularly enjoyed her photography class and considered it as a college major. But ultimately Valone chose graphic design as her course of study at Finger Lakes Community College (FLCC). She wanted a creative but stable career, and graphic design checked those boxes.
Liz Brownell was Valone’s FLCC advisor and professor. “She was an incredible mentor and teacher,” said Valone. “She was one of the first people to really get me hooked on the arts. Her encouragement and support helped me believe that I had a place in the art world.”
After Valone received her AAS in graphic design in 2008, she took a job at Three Brothers Wineries & Estates in Geneva. Though she designed some promotional materials for the winery, it was a detour from an art career. Valone worked in the tasting room – first on staff and then as a manager.
In 2011, Valone enrolled at Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) to continue her graphic design education. A year in, she took a hand building ceramics class as an elective, fell in love with the medium and switched her major. Ultimately, she finished her degree at Alfred University, graduating with a BFA in Ceramic Art in 2016.
During those years, Valone explored various off-campus opportunities to learn as much about the medium as possible. During her summers from 2012 to 2014 she interned at Coach Street Clay in Canandaigua where she was first introduced to the potter’s wheel: a horizontal revolving disk on which wet clay is shaped into pots or other round ceramic objects. Potters refer to shaping on the wheel as “throwing.”
She took a year off from school in 2013-14 to apprentice for Annie Schliffer, a master potter at the Rochester Folk Art Guild in Middlesex. “Annie was a major mentor in my career. I learned so much from her,” said Valone. “Tradition and high-quality craftsmanship were important there and are values I took with me.”
Valone threw countless pots during her time at the guild, honing her craft by repetition. She also mixed clay and made glazes, helped keep the shop clean, loaded and unloaded kilns, worked at craft shows and delivered pottery to galleries. “Jessie has a joyous presence and she had a great work ethic,” said Schliffer. “She was a very facile and quick learner and developed a style of her own in a very short time.”
Molding a business
There were some learning curves in the early years of structuring her small business. Pricing items, what shows and galleries to apply to, how to sell online and what to make were a few considerations. Valone’s graphic design background helped her marketing strategies. She designed her own website and business cards and photographs her work.
Art shows are her primary income stream, followed by gallery and shop sales, then commissions and online purchases. Valone participates in 10 to 12 shows annually, and her pottery is sold at more than a dozen retail outlets in the Finger Lakes Region and beyond such as The Potters’ Gallery in Penn Yan, The Copper Shop Gallery in East Aurora and Blue Pelican Gallery in Hatteras, North Carolina.
“The best unforeseen perk of this ‘job’ has been the customers. They are truly the best of the best,” Valone said. “I have met so many kind, interesting and wholesome people that have become dear friends.”
Customer relationships inform and improve Valone’s work, especially when doing custom orders for people’s homes. Last year, Valone was commissioned to make two complete sets of dinnerware. She worked on a massive kitchen project which required 1,700 tiles. But she also takes custom orders for single objects. Unrath has commissioned mugs, shakers and serving trays.
Valone’s studio is in her Bristol home. She and her husband live in in a 200-year-old farmhouse with their two Labrador retrievers. “Max and I met and started dating in Bloomfield High School. We’ve been together for 19 years, married 11,” Valone said. “He is a power lineman, my best friend and the hardest working person I know. He’s my hero.”
She credits part of her success to Max and her family members who assist in the studio, attend her shows and help her set up and tear down displays. She also values the support and wisdom from the numerous mentors she connected with through the years – in and out of academia.
Valone’s interest turned into a passion and then a career that provides her with immense personal and professional satisfaction. She’s proud to offer handcrafted, thoughtful pottery for daily use and display.
Valone is participating in several November and December holiday shows. Visit jmvceramics.com for more details. Follow the artist on Facebook and on Instagram@jmvceramics.
