by Emmalee Antill

Jean Donegan, a 55-year-old associate
professor of art at Nicholls State University, has not let her four children, her career as an educator or mounds of endless laundry stop her from creating beautiful ceramic master-pieces. She allows them only to inspire her.

For the past 25 years, Donegan has
been a professional educator at the high school and college levels. But during
semester breaks she creates wonderful sculptural ceramic pieces that can be
seen in galleries throughout the country. Her talents also have been featured in various books and magazines including “The New Ceramic Art” and “500 Cups.” Her favorite pieces to create happen to be teapots, and her most celebrated teapot can be seen in the Smithsonian American Art Museum’s Renwick Gallery.

Her Smithsonian-worthy piece, “Portrait of the Artist as Mom...Nightmare Sequence,” shows a likeness of Donegan resting atop a seemingly endless mound of laundry. Details of the laundry pile include uniforms of her children, denim jeans and a rolled-up rug for a spout. The attention to detail in the laundry piece and her other works is truly amazing.

Her first foray into working with clay was as a junior at Nicholls. “Clay is such a great material,” she says. “It can be made to look like any other material. You can do almost anything with it.” The idea to begin forming her favorite medium into teapots originally came from a friend’s suggestion. She began playing with various forms of teapots and goblets and soon found it suited her ideas very well. She has not stopped making them since.

Donegan draws inspiration from her surroundings as well as from her family. In 2004, she created her “Primavera” series of whimsical goblets. Each piece displays beautiful spring flowers, perfectly contrasted with various creepy crawlers. “It contrasts the pretty with the not-so-pretty,” she explains. The two almost life-like images (the flowers and the creepy crawlers) blend together to make truly unique pieces.

She started on her latest collection of teapots just this summer. The collection is inspired by great disasters from the Bible that she learned about while attending Sacred Heart School in New Orleans as a teenager.

She also seems to draw inspiration from her various travels to Europe. As coordinator for the study abroad program for the Nicholls art department, she oversees almost all aspects of the annual trip, which focuses on a different area of the continent each year. Donegan opens the trips to all Nicholls students as well as to the public.

“I love to teach, and I get to work with materials I really enjoy,” she says. A Nicholls professor since 1995, she was awarded the Presidential Award for Teaching Excellence in 2000. She also has created the Artworks Web site, www.nicholls.edu/artworks, which serves as a resource for Louisiana art teachers.

In addition to the Web site and her various art classes, Donegan spends her time at Nicholls passing on her knowledge to the next generation of art teachers in her art education class.

Donegan seems to do it all—mother, artist, teacher. She draws her inspiration from the world around her, all the while inspiring a new generation of art educators. “I highly recommend the teaching profession,” she says. “I can’t think of anything I would rather do.” PoV

If you are interested in purchasing Jean's artwork, contact her at jean.donegan@nicholls.edu.