Tetomo

Following his high school studies, Jordan McDonald attended Sheridan College to pursue illustration. The liveliness and embodied engagement with clay, wood, glass, and textile in the adjacent craft studios caught his attention and stirred a sense of jealousy in him. It seemed to him that, with their clothes stained with clay and sawdust, and their equally craft-suffused surroundings, the students were one step closer to objects in themselves.

“It became apparent to me that these objects were an extension of drawing, and I became interested in making things rather than just depicting them.” 

Jordan accordingly shifted his focus and career path to ceramics, cherishing his student days of learning new techniques and being guided by professors who came to play a significant role in shaping his unique perception of ceramics. He finalized his studies with a scholarship from the Royal Canadian Academy of Art, and has since then been awarded the recommendation prize at the Taiwan Biennale, with his work exhibited at the Gardiner Museum and the Yingge Ceramic Museum.

In his practice, Jordan finds virtue and constant motivation in mastering the technical skills required in the creation of objects that serve a practical purpose, and then expanding on the creative possibilities within that process. 

“A former professor of mine, and now a friend, Walter Ostrom, used to describe craft as a “virtue of necessity.” The idea stuck with me—that life gives you certain needs, and the role of craft is to transform them into something more, to elevate them beyond just getting by.”