Janet Mansfield

Biography

Janet Mansfield has been a potter for more than forty years. She has exhibited widely in Australia and overseas and represented in most major public collections in Australia. Janet is a member of the International Academy of Ceramics since 1981 and currently a vice-president. She has received a number of awards including lifetime achievement awards by NCECA in 2003 and endowed with a Doctorate of Letters from the University of Tasmania in 2004. She has written a number of books on ceramics and is publisher/editor of the international journals Ceramics: Art and Perception and CeramicsTECHNICAL.

For more information visit www.janetmansfield.com

Artist Statement

I make woodfired and salt-glazed ceramics. These firings have been taken to the extreme temperature of 1360°C over a period of some days, a high risk and dangerous experience where pieces move, ash flows and the clay melts into softness; this causes scars where the movement and the ash adheres pots to other pots nearby or to the supports on which they stand. To subject these earthen materials to such high temperatures places the works on the edge of their tolerance and therefore to their acceptance by either the maker or the collecting public. The risk and the level of interaction of clay and fire excited me. I enjoy making works that can be used, works that show individuality and the processes in their creation.