"Ship of Fools" hand-built earthenware and wheel thrown porcelain, fired to cone 6, 17x6x10"
"Ship of Fools" detail
"Cheers" hand-built earthenware and slip cast porcelain, fired to cone 6, 11x4x7"
"Shot with Beer Chaser" hand-built earthenware and wheel thrown porcelain, fired to cone 6, 9x4x10"
Biography
Jon McMillan is an artist and educator residing in Fredericksburg, Virginia, where he is an Associate Professor of ceramics and Chair of the Department of Art and Art History at the University of Mary Washington. He holds an MFA in ceramics from Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville, and a BFA from James Madison University, where he also earned a minor in Art History.
After undergraduate school, Jon worked for seven years as a full-time studio potter before pursuing his terminal degree. Currently, he makes sculptural and functional ceramic artwork, both of which are exhibited widely. Highlights include recent solo exhibitions at The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Tennessee Tech University, Hunter College, and Luniverre Gallery in Cordes Sur Ciel, France. In 2017, McMillan was awarded a Jepson Fellowship to build a wood fired kiln at UMW and the prestigious Grellet Simpson Award for excellence in undergraduate teaching. In 2019, he was awarded a Professional Artist Fellowship with the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. In addition to teaching at UMW, Jon has taught ceramics workshops at Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts, The Glassell School of Fine Art, and The Vallauris Institute for the Arts, among others.