For ceramics painter, the journey is as important as the destination

The first thing you'll notice about painter Jenna Ronnquist's La Crescenta home is its neatness.

On one wall sits a television. Much of the wall is bare. Another wall contains a firelace with pictures of family on the mantle. The wall is dotted by a college degree and other pictures.

Ronnquist's workplace is also neat. The table is placed in such a way that the artist has a view of the backyard. A paintbrush holder with rows of clean paintbrushes sits to the left, a ceramic dog food bowl is on the table. The table resembles a children's desk, but it's a bit taller and wider than most.

She admits to cleaning the place up for our interview. She also admits to keeping most of her artwork in her closets and garage.

Ronnquist is a ceramics painter. She paints everything ceramic, from bathroom tiles, to bowls and cups, to Elvis Presley busts.

Her "customers" have mostly been family and friends. She also paints for herself, making pencil holders, food bowls, cups and anything in between. What she doesn't use, she keeps tucked away.

"I usually [finish the pieces]," said Ronnquist. "But then they end up in the closet or I give [the pieces] to my mom."

She hopes to expand her services to include real customers.

"I was born doing art," Ronnquist said. "I would give people regular paintings for gifts."

Ronnquist works with anything ceramic. She has decorated bathroom tiles to resemble exploding starts, intertwining shades of blue, green, yellow, pink, red and orange. Picture frames are canvases themselves. In one piece, Ronnquist adds a touch of orange and yellow intertwined with dots of red that form a sort of cloud or smoke pattern around the entire frame. She also paints cups and bowls, painting line or zig-zag patterns in shades of blue and green.

She maintains consistency in her work by mixing colors appropriate to a person's personality or interests and by mixing colors of a similar shade. She never combines blues with reds, but blues with green or purple shades, and reds with pink and orange shades.

Ronnquist's concept is simple: meet with the customer first, get to know them, then paint something that suits their personality. If a customer is interested in a piece for a friend or family member, an interview takes place between the customer and Ronnquist so she can get a better idea of who the person she is painting for.