JORDAN OLSEN

Jordan (pronouns: he/they) has been working with clay for over 20 years. Beginning with a highschool ceramics class, and later maintaining workspaces in community and home studios, they have practiced mainly in the realm of functional wheel-thrown pottery, with occasional meanderings into sculpture, tile, and jewelry work. Since 2015, Jordan has been involved in building and operating a 'near-wilderness' artist residency on the edge of the Ottawa National Forest in Michigan's Upper Peninsula, where participants dig wild clay to process and make work from. They recently earned a degree in Materials Science and Engineering from the University of Minnesota in their hometown of Minneapolis. They love to discuss and investigate the deep and marvelous ways that rocks and minerals are transformed through our manipulations into objects of wonder, usefulness, reflection, and ritual.