Jill Cameron's social media is full of mugshots. 

Photos of her mugs, that is, posted as part of #Mugshotmonday—a hashtag she didn’t invent, but one that’s proven a useful way of sharing her work. 

“Someone else had posted it and I thought that was really cool and catchy,” she notes. “I try to find creative ways that almost force me to put out something—Oh, it's mugshot Monday. I should do a post and get it out there.”  

Her mugs certainly deserve their close ups: they frequently feature intricate designs, from bicycles to foxes to mountains, among other unusually detailed pottery made possible with tissue transfer, which is ”applied similar to a temporary tattoo,” she notes. But mugs are just one of the many things that Cameron makes. She’s an artistic polyglot, a potter-painter-jeweler-photographer-sewer extraordinaire.  

“I don't sit still well,” she says. “Finding other things, to have that creative outlet, is always important to me.” 

Art was something she found herself drawn to from a young age.  

“I always remembered doing art my whole life. All different types of things, and I got really busy even at a young age doing commissioned pictures for people and stuff,” Cameron recalls. But then the hustle of university lead to a bit of a pause: “I was too busy. I just needed a break from all of it.” 

Years passed, and Cameron and her husband moved around the county, but she started to notice the absence of art in her life: “I could tell there was something missing. I needed to get back into it.”  

To spur that, her husband signed her up for pottery classes, which led to her buying a wheel and kiln that they packed and moved to St. Albert with over a decade ago. And while other artistic disciplines crept back into her life, she’s managed to find the proper, managable balance between her dayjob and her artistic whims.  

While mugs now rank among her favourite things to make, it wasn’t always that way. 

“They're kind of a labor of love, and for years I never made mugs 'cause they’re so much more work,” she says. “I also think that people enjoy mugs because they’re a functional piece of art they can use every day. It's a little more personal and I love that aspect of it … some people like the way a handle fits in their hand. They feel a little more attached to that piece. I think that’s really neat.” 

Cameron’s work can be found at the Art Gallery of St. Albert and the Royal Alberta Museum, as well as on her instagram and facebook (@jillcameroncreative), where she can display the myriad types of work she creates. 

“I like variety,” she says. “I don't like doing the same thing all the time, because I get bored too easily.” 

Article Written By: Paul Blinov

To learn more about Jill Cameron's work, follow her on Instagram @jillcameroncreative.

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