Jayne King
& Water Elementary
Jayne King & Water Elementary

Project Overview

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  • Artist — Jayne King

  • School — Waters Elementary School

  • Neighborhood — Ravenswood

This piece is a member of my ongoing series of Memory Vessels: ceramic objects intended for the

storage and preservation of memory and experience as opposed to food and drink. I worked with the kids in Ms. B’s 3rd grade class to select objects they felt encapsulated their time at Waters Elementary.

We discussed the 17 year cicada cycle and how the natural rhythms of the Earth offer metaphors with which to explore and describe our own experiences. We also discussed the solar eclipse and how they’ll always remember such a special, once-in-a-lifetime event they spent together at Waters.

The vessel depicts the school building one one side and the playground on the other, with kids running about, reading on the benches, and watching the eclipse together. Buried below ground are the objects the kids chose and drew out for me to add to the piece, which I think worked wonderfully to incorporate their unique lived perspectives into the work.

Meet the Artist

Jayne King

Jayne King — Environmental Photo

Jayne King is a Chicago-born Jewish artist and recent graduate of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (BFA 2022), where they spent their time focusing on ceramics, object collection, and book making. Their work has been exhibited nationally at Sweetwater Center for the Arts, Povos Gallery, the Joan Flasch Artists’ Book Collection, SAIC Galleries, and Woman Made Gallery.

King was a 2022 ArtAxis+Haystack Fellowship recipient, a 2022 Chicago Artist Coalition SPARK Grant recipient, 2023 Luminarts Finalist, the 2023 Old Town Arts Fest Inaugural Emerging Artist, and is currently a long-term artist in residence at The Digs Chicago.

Jayne King is a Chicago-born Jewish artist and recent graduate of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (BFA 2022), where they spent their time focusing on ceramics, object collection, and book making. Their work has been exhibited nationally at Sweetwater Center for the Arts, Povos Gallery, the Joan Flasch Artists’ Book Collection, SAIC Galleries, and Woman Made Gallery.

King was a 2022 ArtAxis+Haystack Fellowship recipient, a 2022 Chicago Artist Coalition SPARK Grant recipient, 2023 Luminarts Finalist, the 2023 Old Town Arts Fest Inaugural Emerging Artist, and is currently a long-term artist in residence at The Digs Chicago.

Jayne King — Environmental Photo

Previous Residency

Eseosa Edebiri & Ruiz Elementary

Next Residency

Nyia Sissac & Frederick Douglass High School

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