Jamie received her MFA in Ceramics at the University of Kansas in Spring of 2012. She received her BFA in Studio Art with and emphasis in Ceramics in 2008 at the University of Central Missouri. Her most recent work addresses the fragility of the human spirit in the midst of illness and loss in relation to her family’s history with cancer.

Jamie has shown work both locally and nationally including, shows at First Street Gallery in New York; the Clay Studio of Missoula in Missoula, MT; and at the National Student Juried Exhibition at the Jacob Lawrence Gallery in Seattle, WA; in conjunction with the 2012 National Council on the Education for the Ceramics Arts Conference.

The focus and significance of my work lies in the state of the human condition, the delicacy and fragility of the human construct in an emotional and physical sense. My experience is that of being part of an extended family that has endured a history of cancer and high mortality rate. As I have become more aware of my family’s history with illness through the examination of my memories, I have also become wary of the future and empathetic of the past. I often find myself attributing to others, my own unwanted thoughts and emotions in relation to cancer. This projection of my anxieties onto others acts as cancer does in metastasis, spreading from one location to another. My work is an examination and reflection of the memories, emotions, and anxieties caused by my family’s history with cancer with an emphasis on the relationship between human biology and human emotion.

www.jamiembates.com