Janet DeBoos
Ceramics
Accredited Professional Member
Janet Deboos is an established artist with an international profile as an artist, designer, mentor, writer and teacher who works predominantly in the medium of ceramics. She has exhibited consistently since 1973.
Janet likes to tell stories with her ceramics that reference the rich history of the ceramic form, the cultural insinuation of that form and influences upon it. The pot surface for Janet is a canvas to develop rich and complex meanings and she draws from her surroundings of the Australian bush and the cultural intersections she encounter both here and overseas. She enjoys using iconic imagery from the high point of Chinese porcelain decoration (Qing over glaze), colour and line form the deserts of Australia (Ernabella terrasigillata and Australian flora) and the most ancient of techniques from the ceramics lexicon (sgraffito or scratching) to create hybrid pottery works that are both contemporary and timeless, culturally specific and yet borderless. Janet uses the perception of ceramics as functional form or sculptural object and the gap between these two approaches to the medium as a place to insert her very unique works that critique how we perceive value in objects from a cultural perspective.
Janet is a master potter known for her command of glaze technology. She works from her studio in the Brindabella ranges near Wee Jasper, NSW. Janet is an IAC Council Member, (elected September 2012) representing Australia/ New Zealand and South Africa and travels consistently to the USA and China professionally. She is an Emeritus Fellow at the Australian National University, School of Art and Design.
Online Resources:
Intersections 2021; Janet DeBoos: A Survey; Meet the Maker