Cheney's Jacobsen wins state art award

Cheney High School freshman Johnathen Jacobsen wasn't even going to enter his award-winning ceramic piece titled "Sun" in the state Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction's annual Superintendent's High School Art Show.

That distinction fell to another piece, until a fellow art class student accidentally tripped over the spinning wheel Jacobsen was using to work on the piece, causing it to fall and shatter.

"He just went silent," high school art teacher Rebecca Dempsey said.

That piece was a big bowl, and Jacobson tried his best to recreate it. When that didn't pan out, he went to his backup option, a pair of colorful, bulb-shaped pieces meant as decoration.

"The one I entered was never originally supposed to be entered," Jacobsen said.

Interesting, since that piece went on to win a regional award at Educational Services District 101 - one of three first-place winners from Cheney - and recently a state award, leading to Jacobson's piece going on display at OSPI headquarters in Olympia and a request he attend a special reception on May 18 to honor all of the state award winners.

Jacobsen said he hadn't done a lot of art until he took an interest and joined art club in October 2017. Since that time he's created eight or nine pieces, giving some away, and learned the techniques of ceramics, one of which was learning to "throw" clay, i.e., working on a spinning wheel to create shapes.

"It took me about 20 attempts," he said. "One of the biggest things is I never gave up. I just kept trying and trying."

Dempsey and Jacobsen stressed the difficulty in throwing, requiring a lot of water and clay and creating a mess at times that spills over onto clothes and floor. Once the piece is done, it goes into a drying box for 1-2 weeks. It's then sanded several times and eventually put into a hot kiln for firing, something that usually takes around 24 hours, depending on the clay, and can be done up to four times.

Jacobsen said "Sun" required three firings, and a couple glazings before completion.

"I glazed it a second time to get a better effect, I didn't like the first," Jacobsen said. "I wanted the glazy to run more."

Jacobsen, who has lived in Cheney most of his life except for a couple years that his family was in Colville, said he drew his inspiration for the design of the piece from Florida ceramic artist Matt Horney. As for it's name, "Sun" and glazing, Jacobsen said he drew upon a sort of love/hate relationship with space - as in the vast universe.

"Space creeps me out," he said. "But I like looking at pictures. I had one of a supernova exploding on my laptop background."

Jacobsen said he worked on recreating the willowy, intricate patterns of the exploding star within his glaze.

"That's why I named it "Sun," from a supernova, which is a sun blowing up," he added.

Jacobsen said he will continue doing art while in high school, but doesn't see it as a future career. In working towards the latter, he's been a member of Future Business Leaders of America since his days at Cheney Middle School, becoming one of the first eighth-graders from Washington to advance to national competition last year.

"I love the business end of everything," Jacobsen said.

John McCallum can be reached at jmac@cheneyfreepress.com.