Joan was born in Alberta and lived there most of her life. Although she has lived and traveled in many places, she considers the prairie home. With an RN from the University of Alberta and a BN from McGill, her nursing career combined general duty and teaching of nursing. She stopped active nursing to raise four children with her husband Dean, during which time she ran a home-based computer business and ran to all her children’s activities. When she was introduced to clay, she knew she had found a medium which would challenge and hold her captive for a lifetime. In spite of all the other activities in the family, she always found time to keep a little hand in pottery.
Since moving to Winnipeg and being introduced to Manitoba Artists in Healthcare, she uses skills learned in both areas as a volunteer in the pottery program in the McEwen Centre Mental Health Program, working with both adults and adolescents. She believes the lessons of clay are exceptional metaphors for the lessons of life. To her, creative expression through the arts is a very important tool in the healing process.
