About Petra Juarez

Tucson-based artist Petra Juarez works primarily in the mediums of clay and metal and is interested in bringing meaning and craft to everyday objects. Petra has made pottery and jewelry intermittently for over twenty years. She has lived all over the US, and for a time in Spain. She studied English Literature and Art History at Oberlin College, and has a Bachelor of Science in Nursing. Petra has worked in many different fields including several years in the restaurant industry and for a decade as an emergency department nurse. She is Chicana, and as such, resides in multiple cultural spheres.

Inhabiting so many different spaces deepened Petra’s tenderness for our shared humanity and the resilience of the human body, which is reflected in her artwork. Each piece she makes is one of a kind, and yet is recognizable as her work. She loves pattern and appreciates how similar patterns show up in nature and in different cultures all over the world.  Much of her pottery is fired in wood or soda kilns which impart a feeling of spontaneity and movement to the pots. She aims to make organic forms that reflect both the beauty and the irregularities we find in the natural world and in ourselves.