Cj Jilek grew up outside of the Chicago area and found she had a few great loves: ceramics, travel, and the natural world. Cj received her undergraduate degree in ceramics from Southern Illinois University at Carbondale in 1995.  Afterwards she started traveling and exploring her ceramics. Cj moved to Northern California to wood fire where she created vessel forms, exploring the wood fire surface in conjunction with textures representative of the natural world.

 

Cj continued her travels through California and relocated to Santa Barbara where she taught ceramics for the Santa Barbara Museum of Art, the public school system, and private schools. Cj has always been involved in her community volunteering for organizations such as Empty Bowls, Ventura County Potters Guild, and Santa Barbara City College. While living in Southern California she traveled the western United States. In 2006 Cj took a short-term residency at the Mendocino Arts Center, leading to her renewed interest in graduate studies. Utah State University provided her with the opportunity to study and travel; she studied in Australia, New Zealand, South Korea and China. She recently completed her MFA degree in 2010.

 

Being inspired by her travels, Cj is now creating porcelain biomorphic forms fired in oxidation with mixed media elements.  Through her work she questions ideas of beauty, attraction, eroticism, adaptation and desire.  She continues to travel giving lectures and workshops.