Former Psych Nurse Finds Passion in Play-Doh

From one hand to the other then back into its container, JoAnn Scarnecchia Poulton’s Play-Doh didn’t stay in one place for long.

The psychiatric nurse turned artist fiddled with whatever was around her as she talked inside . She described how she got to where she is — a zany and restless creature, a wife and mother of two, an artist whose heart is in her art.

Before that interview this past month, Poulton told North Canton Patch she’d bring along a few pieces of art. What surrounded her in the back corner that day, though, were two tables stacked with knitted scarves and winter hats, decorative bowls, framed artwork and lots and lots of Play-Doh.

She didn’t notice the stares from diners chewing on their baguettes and sipping their coffee as she talked maybe a little too loudly for a public place.

“I love the feeling, the texture. I love the feeling of the clay in my fingers, the clay coated on my rings. I just love everything about it,” she said.

That’s probably what gets the most attention — her clay pieces. Poulton creates decorative bowls that put your grandma’s china to shame. They can be as small as a bowl to stash your rings in, or they can stretch almost a couple feet across with lavish detailing on the front and the back.

Most pieces have Poulton’s first holy communion dress worked into the back. She lays the material atop the clay so that it has a stamping effect and creates the pattern of the dress in the clay. She’ll often use doilies to create a design on those bowls, too, and add a couple tones to give it a cool effect.

She held up a black bowl (shown in the photos section of this story).

“This one reminds me of when you’re on the beach and the sun glistens on the waves,” she said. “This one is just really cool.”

She also brought with her a giant pink bowl that was one heck of a challenge to keep in one piece, which explains its name, “Splendid Persistence.” You might call the $2,000 piece one of Poulton’s most prized possessions.

“Someday someone will buy it, but until that day it is mine.”

She remembered back to her first class in which she handled clay and what influenced her to take that class at the Canton Museum of Art in 1990. Have you guessed it yet?

Play-Doh.

Coming from an Italian-Catholic family, Poulton wasn’t allowed to get dirty as a kid. But once adulthood hit, nothing could keep her from the stuff.

“It’s in the drawers, in the kitchen, it’s in my nightstand. I usually keep one of these baby ones in my purse. It’s in my car …”

And she did go on.

She started working with clay, following her instructors’ orders, learned the properties of it and eventually got bored doing the traditional clay-work, she said.

“Then, once I knew the properties of clay, I proceeded to break all the rules.”

She also grew tired of using kilns in other workshops and knew she’d have to invest in her own.

“Now I have my own kiln and I can fire it at all waking hours — and I do.”

In addition to the kiln, Poulton’s basement workshop is an explosion of fabric, molds, rolling pins and buckets of clay. Her scientist husband, Tom, has an “if it makes you happy” mentality about her art, and the couple made an agreement to keep the first floor of their home an art-free zone.

She didn’t start selling her work until others talked her into it. She began doing art shows and since then has been featured at the , Gallery 143 and the Island Center for the Arts in Skopelos, Greece.

Granddaughter of a seamstress and costume maker, Poulton is convinced art is in her bloodline. Both her daughters — Jennifer and Linda — have gone into the field of art, she said.

You can email Poulton at urok2mejsp@aol.com or call her at 330-494-8392. Or look for her and her work at various art shows around Stark County.

If you have a minute, ask her to describe for you how she creates her clay artwork. Watch her face light up, sit back and enjoy the show.

“My heart sings when I’m doing clay. This is just what I’m meant to do.”