Steve Jorgenson   Steve was born on Bainbridge Island, Washington, in 1947 and grew up in Seattle. After graduating in 1969 with a B.A. degree in Art from Bethel University, Saint Paul, Minnesota, he received an Art Education Teaching Certificate from Seattle Pacific University in 1971. A variety of jobs in teaching and construction followed before he emigrated to Canada in 1975 where he works as a potter and sculptor. He has been a partner in The Stoneware Gallery since 1985. His wheel-thrown pots are made of stoneware clay and are designed to be functional and have visually complex surfaces. Motifs from nature are carved into the pots which are first covered with brushed on multi-coloured slips. Transparent matte and gloss glazes are applied and then the pottery is fired in a gas kiln to approximately 2350° F, utilizing a heavy reduction atmosphere which produces richly coloured glazes and clay bodies.

Artist Statement:

“My father was involved in the construction business, so I grew up fascinated by observing building forms develop and grow, empty spaces being filled with rising, large constructed shapes. I was always aware of designed things being made by hand, using a variety of materials. From a very young age I had access to all my father’s woodworking tools, endless supplies of scrap building materials and the phenomenal freedom to use it in any way I chose to create my own designed objects.   “In the sculptural relief mirror series I use many scrap materials gathered from my family’s woodworking shops and wood piles and from my friends’ frame shop storerooms. I work these various materials into detailed, complexly designed relief surfaces. Textures, patterns, paint and metallic leaf with carved and shaped forms glow and constantly change with shifting light. The mirrors used function both as surfaces surrounded by sculptural relief and as a collage element incorporated into the relief surfaces. These recycled and altered materials with allusions to other uses are combined with the deliberately dark bronze mirror which indistinctly reflects and incorporates the surrounding images and spaces as part of the sculptural object.”

To contact Steve directly via email: steve@stonewaregallery.com