Janet Mansfield
Janet Mansfield has been a potter for more than thirty years, exhibiting widely in Australia and overseas. She is represented in most major public collections in Australia and her work has appeared in many publications throughout the world. She has been an invited participant in symposiums, conferences and as a juror in many countries. Janet is a member of the International Academy of Ceramics since 1981 and currently vice-president of that organization. She has written a number of books on ceramics and is publisher/editor of the journals Ceramics: Art and Perception and Ceramics TECHNICAL, international publications of high quality. For many years she has worked in the salt-glaze and wood firing ceramics aesthetic, giving workshops and lecturing internationally on this subject.
Artist Statement
Ceramics as a discipline can take an artist in many different directions – one has only to look at the thousands of years of history of ceramics and its expression across cultures to find pleasure in its possibilities. The aesthetic appreciation of ceramics is as individual as the people who make it.
The ceramics that I make are wood-fired and salt-glazed. These firings have been taken to the extreme temperature of 1360C 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 the edge of their acceptance by either the maker or the collecting public.
But the risk and this level of interaction of clay and fire is the one that excites me. My work is not the safe option, but there are others who understand the boundaries of the potter’s art. I enjoy making works that can be used, works that show individuality and the processes of their creation. And I hope others will find the same level of enjoyment using these pieces each day.
April 2006
Stoneware Jar
370 x 330 mm
Wheel-thrown and wood-fired with salt glaze
Awards
Janet Mansfield has received a number of awards for ceramics including the 1986 Award of the Australian Ceramic Society. In 1987 she was awarded an Order of Australia Medal for her services to art, especially ceramics. In 1990 she received the Emeritus Award for art from the Australia Council. In 1999 she received the award of the Ceramic Arts Foundation, Ceramics Millennium, Amsterdam.
In 2003 she was granted Lifetime Achievement awards by both the National Council for Education in the Ceramic Arts, USA; and the International Festival of Ceramics, UK.
Stoneware Vase
160 x 160 mm
Wheel-thrown and wood-fired with natural ash glaze.
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