For Immediate Release / October 3, 2024

Artist Spotlight: Jody Swanson crafts "Red Hot Pots"

Jody Swanson’s pottery journey was born of a need for stress relief.

A former-but-longtime member of the St. Albert Potters Guild, Swanson’s been making pottery since 1995, when she was a clinical psychology student at the University of Alberta. She found herself struggling during her practicum, and went to her professor and faculty dean for help.

“They were like, ‘Oh, you need some stress relief. You either need to do yoga or go do pottery,’” Swanson recalls. “And I was like, ‘Well, I'm not doing yoga.’”

She picked pottery, took a course and found herself drawn to the tactile, hands-on nature of the craft.

“It's very grounding to work with earth, the clay and your hands,” she says. It's very cathartic. I just fell in love with it and kept doing it. I ended up switching faculties [at school], but I stayed on with the pottery.”

Decades later, Swanson’s acclaimed work—under the name Red Hot Pots—reflects her passion, experience, and Métis heritage. Natural imagery adorns her works: Swanson even picks plants and impresses them directly into the clay, allowing that imprint to become part of the finished piece.

  Two plates and a mug  Three vases

Her works range from traditional bowls and cups to occasionally more unusual offerings, including funeral urns.

“A lot of funeral homes, they'll charge thousands of dollars for these urns,” she says. “My father passed away just before covid happened, and my sister was having the same troubles. I [thought], well, I'll make you an urn.”

“It was quite the process, because you have to actually figure out the cubic-inch capacity that you're gonna require, so that the body will fit in there, the ashes and bones,” she continues. ”I know a lot of people think that's kind of a morbid thing, but for me it was like, ‘Oh, this is really cool.’”

Swanson keeps her practice part-time these days: much of her output is directly commissioned, and used as gifts, or as part of traditional protocol. Some of it has traveled the world: Swanson has pieces in the Smithsonaian in New York, among other places.

Reflecting her culture in her works is a way of keeping those stories alive, she notes.

“I put a lot of that [cultural history] into my artwork, as much as I possibly can,” Swanson says. “I try to preserve it. I mean, clay, porcelain, stoneware, that stuff will last for over a thousand years. …

My thought is that if I can preserve our livelihood, our story—what's important to the Métis, what's important to our first nations here in Alberta, and our surrounding provinces and territories—and encapsulate that into the clay work, it's going to be there hopefully for forever. Maybe some of my stuff will be dug up a thousand years from now, when we're all living on Mars or something. That’s the hope and the dream.”

Article written by: Paul Blinov


More information about Jody Swanson’s artwork can be found at www.jodyswanson.com.

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Last edited: October 2, 2024