Red Lodge Clay Center – Short-Term Resident 2023
Janet Hero Dodge earned a BA degree in art history at Carleton College. In 1967, she received a scholarship between her junior and senior year to study Japanese aesthetics and pottery with potter/teacher Kioshi Kanetsune in Kyoto, Japan. After she graduated from Carleton in 1968, she began studies for five summers between 1968-71 and 1973 at the Pond Farm workshops founded by Marguerite Wildenhain. During this period she also earned an MA degree in ceramics at Mankato State University in Minnesota.
Dodge was an artist in residence at Rochester Junior College and taught at Mankato State and at the C.M. Russell Museum in Great Falls, MT. She then moved to Roscoe, MT, to establish Pioneer Pottery. At the pottery she and her partner make production ware including mugs, bowls, pitchers, casseroles and special orders. She has exhibited widely throughout the Midwest and western states.
Dodge says of her work, “My pottery is primarily functional, participating in and enhancing the experience of daily living. My pots communicate most personally when handled and used. Each decoration has its roots in the visual imagery of the natural world. The decorated surface then becomes a translation of my environment.”