Janet MacPherson: A Canadian Ceramic Artist

Bob Acton shares his conversation with the Canadian ceramic artist Janet Macpherson. She began studying ceramics at Sheridan College, in Toronto, ON Canada and for six years operated a studio practice making functional ceramics, participating in exhibitions, and selling her work at various Toronto galleries. In 2008 she began her MFA in ceramics at The Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio where she explored a more figurative approach to ceramics. Janet held an artist-in-residence/faculty position at Sheridan College in the 2012 Fall Semester, and was an artist in residence at the Harbourfront Centre in Toronto from 2011 - 2014. In 2013 she was the recipient of the Winifred Shantz Award for Ceramics, given by Clay and Glass Gallery in Waterloo, Ontario, and in 2014 she was artist in residence at the Zentrum Fur Keramik in Berlin, Germany.

Jennifer's work explores the complicated relationship humans have with their physical bodies. My work explores this idea, specifically the denial of this physicality that was prevalent in my Catholic upbringing, while simultaneously asserting the body’s messy and powerful presence. This work is influenced by the history of Christianity, martyrdom, and the monstrous. Like the fragmentation of the martyred body, the monstrous body exhibits dissolution of parts, and shows in its disquieting form, hybridization, lack and excess.

You can find Jennifer at her website here: https://www.janetmacpherson.com/ and on Instagram here: https://www.instagram.com/janetmacpherson/