Artist Profile: Corrinn Jusell

“The first piece of pottery I ever made was a tiny coil pot,” ceramicist Corrinn Jusell recalls. “By the time I reached my junior year at Nauset High School, my guidance counselor suggested I apply to college as an art major, or stop taking art classes,” she laughs. “I have dyslexia, so art was always my break, my relief.”

With a bachelor’s degree in ceramics and fine arts (as well as a minor in business) from the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, a fairly technical program, Jusell learned about the chemistry of clay and glaze, how to build or maintain kilns, and the operations of a ceramic studio. From there, she was an intern at the Peters Valley School for Craft in New Jersey, a production potter for Jill Rosenwald in Boston, then started a residency at Arch Contemporary Ceramics in Rhode Island. “I finally found my own studio at Hatch Street Studios in New Bedford–I have been there for three years now and am the President of the Artists’ Association,” Jusell explains.

On the road to full-time artistry, Jusell developed her own craft by discovering what she liked personally, as well as what inspired her creative genes. “In college, I was still trying to figure out what my style was,” relates Jusell. “I was experimenting with sharp, minimal forms, but the ideas weren’t fully fledged.” After studying the work of internationally known ceramicist Eva Zeisel, Jusell knew she was onto something. “I started playing with undulating rims and sharper curves, and it all kind of spiraled from there,” she illustrates.

Offering mugs to vases, plate sets to butter dishes, cake stands to juice pitchers, Jusell’s set catalog is her bread and butter. “I’ve perfected that line of ceramics,” she says. “I really enjoy making them, but I also enjoy…