Joanna Pike hails from South Portland, Maine, and was raised by an artist and an engineer. As a result she has a love of both beauty and utility. As a teenager she was interested in history and the way in which society defines itself. She is interested in social interactions and feels strongly that psychology, the selection of objects, and aesthetic taste are interconnected. Joanna seeks to understand what it means to be a maker of objects and how the vessels she makes can better the world with their unique beauty.

Joanna entered NSCAD with production pottery in mind, but made the switch to more one of a kind pieces that challenge the user. She makes functional vessels that nod to historical ceramics and traditional pottery in their forms. The beauty and honesty of nature is her main source of inspiration for surface. She is greatly interested in ceramic materials and the ways in which they can be combined to create surface effects and to manipulate forms. Her vessels are made with the firing process in mind and the interesting ways clay and glaze can change a form without the control of the hand. She is drawn to ceramics because of its infinite possibilities of combination between material and concept.