Collection: Lundy, Mary Jane

Mary Jane Lundy is a Craft Nova Scotia Master Artisan who creates land and sea inspired ceramic sculptures with the goal of generating a joyous visual experience. She has been a resident of East Dover, Nova Scotia since 1985. She grew up in the small town of St. George in New Brunswick.
  
She graduated from the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design University in 2003 with a BFA major in Ceramics. During her studies at NSCAD University, she was influenced by the designs of 15th century French ceramist Bernard Palissy.  Palissy cast living things such as frogs, lizards, fish, plants, and shells in plaster to create clay press molds.  Like Palissy who cast only species from his surrounding area, Mary Jane has limited her subjects to Nova Scotia sea life. Her ceramics are inspired by the sea life found in the waters of the Atlantic Ocean, and the birds, animals and plant life that inhabit its shorelines  

Her ceramic studio practice is based on hand-built slab clay construction using red earthenware clay, native to Nova Scotia. The ceramic sculptures emphasize surface decoration using repetitive, visual patterning through a variety of techniques - such as pressing crochet doilies into clay slabs. Her use of under-glaze layering combined with transparent over-glaze, creates depth and glaze pooling throughout the imprinted sculpture. Her work is meant to engage the viewer by enticing them to interact with her pieces by touching and feeling the texture.

Mary Jane's ceramics has been exhibited at several fine art galleries and shops in Ontario, Nova Scotia and PEI.  Collectors in Ontario, South Carolina, and New York have commissioned her work.  In 2008 she received a Nova Scotia Tourism Culture & Heritage – Creation Grant to study and create water fountains.  In 2012, the Nova Scotia Art Bank Purchase Program, purchased “Octopus Invasion”.   Mary Jane has traveled world-wide for the past 16 years taking cues from various cultures and periods in ceramics history. 

Artist Statement