Artist's Bio
Jane Shellenbarger was born in Detroit, Michigan in 1964. She was a CORE student at Penland School of Crafts in Penland, North Carolina from 1987-1989. Jane received her B.F.A. degree from the Kansas City Art Institute, and her M.F.A. from Southern Illinois University Edwardsville. Following graduate school, she was a resident artist at the Archie Bray Foundation for the Ceramic Arts, Helena, MT 1996-97. She established her studio pottery, Mill Station Pottery, in rural Hale, Michigan in 1997. Currently, she is an Assistant Professor at Northern Michigan University. She has taught at Kansas City Art Institute, Penland School of Crafts, Haystack Mountain School of Crafts and the University of Northern Iowa. Jane has exhibited her work in several galleries around the country including; Leslie Ferrin Gallery, Lacoste Gallery, AKAR Gallery, Sante Fe Clay and Baltimore Clayworks among others. Her work is in the permanent collections of the Renwick Gallery of the National Museum of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington D.C., The Archie Bray Foundation for the Ceramic Arts, and The University Museum, Southern Illinois University Edwardsville.

Artist's Statement
I am interested in the connection between hand and eye and memory. My work focuses on a vessel aesthetic, incorporating historical references with domestic objects. The pieces are thrown and altered with highly personal surface treatments. While function continues to be an essential concern, I am most intrigued with the ability of pots to transcend themselves as objects and convey information. Form, and surface treatment and the ability for the work to draw relationships to history through imagery, content, and pattern hold my fascination.

I work in porcelain and stoneware clays, firing with atmospheric kilns. Often the pieces undergo multiple post firings to achieve a depth of surface.

Pots are intimate by nature. They have the ability to choreograph domestic experience affecting people in a deep and interactive way. This is unparalleled by other objects. There is a need to keep these interactions vital. The rhythm of making pots is, for me, an endless pursuit to express ideas and define interactions through form.