Jam Westwood

Jam is an artist from the Northeast of England, currently living and working in Darlington. Her work explores human narratives, using lighthearted humour, wordplay and nostalgia as a vehicle to cast light upon experienced social contradictions.

Trained in Fine Art at Sunderland University, Jam later taught herself ceramics after inheriting pottery equipment from her grandmother. Her forms are almost always built slowly by hand. The irregularities of that process – the wonky bits, lumpy bits and fingerprints – are as important to the narrative as carefully decorated surfaces. Text, often taken from social media, spontaneous graffiti, text messages or personal ramblings, provide snap shots of everyday contemporary life juxtaposed with references to important historical artefacts.

Jam also paints and in contrast to the pace of ceramics, this is at speed with her fingers or anything else at hand. Her abstracted worlds are inhabited by crudely drawn stick figures. Infantile representations of todays society, as seen through the eyes of her childhood self. Jam being the nickname given to her as a young child, a period of clarity which continues to inform and inspire her.

Jam was selected to be interviewed on Graysons Art club (Channel 4) in 2022, which featured her 100 ceramic bonbon dishes to showcase themes of ‘Inside my Head’. She has exhibited nationwide and has delivered ceramics workshops in North Devon for women affected by homelessness. Jam has also held the position of Subject Lead for Art and Design since 2012, at a secondary school in North Yorkshire.