Jody Swanson

How pottery helped Jody Swanson discover a whole new perspective on life.

It was in the mid ‘90s when Jody Swanson realized that she needed a hobby.

“At the time I was going to the University of Alberta for a psychology degree, and I was doing some of my practicums up north,” says the St. Albert-based Métis artisan, who creates original indigenous pottery, leatherwork and beadwork under the aegis of Red Hot Pots. “I was working up north on and off Bigstone Cree Nation, and it was just very stressful because I was having to assist in doing evaluations on whether children should stay with their families.”

For Swanson, this was doubly traumatic, not only for echoing the historic dispossession of indigenous peoples, but because these were her people. The pressure built up to such a degree that eventually the faculty dean took her aside and gave her a word of advice. Rather than dwelling on her work after hours, she suggested that Swanson find something for stress management.

The examples given were yoga and pottery, and Swanson still laughs at the thought of doing the former. Instead she investigated and found a 12-week pottery course at the University of Alberta Faculty of Extension. Swanson describes it as love at first sight, and when summer came around, she joined a pottery club in Athabasca. Suddenly she had a passion, and like many passionate people before her, she threw herself wholeheartedly into the craft.

As Swanson notes, the appeal lay as much in metaphor as it does in the actual molding of pottery.

“It’s the dirt, it’s earth,” she says. “You’re taking something from the earth and you’re molding it and creating it with your hands, and then you’re using a little bit of fire to it for a chemical change into something that’s solid that will last a very long time. We’re born from the earth, and then we go back to the earth, and pottery is like that, our whole human existence on this planet is like that.”

The stress-reducing hobby began to really take shape as a side career in the 2000s, especially when Swanson became more involved with the Métis nation of Alberta. She applied for and received a Métis indigenous entrepreneurial grant to start up her own studio, and reached out to other indigenous artists and indigenous business people to collaborate. Local and international recognition came later in that decade, with pieces being shown at the Alberta Craft Gallery.

Swanson’s reputation grew. Given that she worked with Alberta clay, it was almost inevitable that the Alberta legislature would approach her for custom commission pieces to be given to visiting dignitaries. The federal government has also asked for some of Swanson’s work, as has the Smithsonian Museum in Washington D.C.

“It’s red pottery that has my hand-carved signature in them,” she says. “There’s a whole series with documents that go with them, and pictures of me being all muddy and dirty and stuff. You know, the typical things that you think of when you’re thinking of a potter.”

Swanson is deeply connected to her heritage through her art. She grew up in Baptiste Lake near Athabasca, in a 2,400 square-foot cabin built by her dad out of old telephone poles. Her time near the lake still resonates with her. As she says a number of times, water is life, and she tries to incorporate water features in her work. Nature is also ever present, whether through use of berries, branches, or bark.

“I like to use bright colors,” she says. “The Métis are known as the flower beadwork people, and we like to use bright turquoise and yellows, pinks and reds, oranges and greens. I’ll put that same kind of color scheme into the pottery. For example, I have a few lines where I use dot art to replicate the look of beads of beadwork onto the clay. Those are really popular. I can’t even keep them in stock, and they are usually sold before I can even get them photographed.”

Swanson, who works a day job as a risk and insurance advisor for the City of St. Albert, has other skills as well. She does traditional indigenous beading and makes moccasins, mukluks and gloves, purses and medicine pouches. As she notes, we all have skills, and it’s important to learn and share them, because what else is there in life besides what are you going to do in that space between when you’re born and when you die?

“You have to make art,” she says.

“But you also have to put good spirit in it, and you have to be in a good spirit mind in order to make art, because everything has spirit and everything has energy in it. Everything is made of molecules, whether it’s a gas, a liquid or a solid. And all of these things have a nucleus that has energy, and you can’t create the energy, and you can’t destroy the energy, but you can transform the energy into different things. Don’t ever make anything when you’re in a bad mood, sad or angry, because then that energy will be transferred into that piece. So that’s probably the most important thing.”t8n