Meet Janice Andersen

Born into a dairy farmer’s family in Mesa, Arizona, Janice didn’t see much of the world until much later in her life. She seemed content to play under the unrelenting heat of the day and into the night with her eight brothers and sisters and many cousins who lived nearby. She learned many of the homemaking skills needed to run a smooth household from keen observation and always had a great desire to raise a family of her own. She did exactly that with her first four children and says she loved every moment of it. So much, in fact, that when the last ones went out on their own, she and her husband, Doug, adopted a baby girl and seven years later adopted three more children out of an orphanage in Ukraine. She is also the grandmother of twelve. One could say that family means everything to Janice.

Embedded in the family structure as she is, it’s not a stretch to understand that most of her sculptures are based on the various family relationships that can exist. Some are plucked right out of her life, while some are what she imagines it’s like for others. She wants the observer to reach back into their childhood or child rearing days and recollect those fond memories that have made us who we are today. Families create the strongest bonds that can exist and should last forever.

Janice always excelled in math and, of course, art. She was always looking forward to her next project which she could create or build something. This passion carried over to various homemaking duties such as crafts, sewing, hair styling, home decoration, even bread making, where every loaf had to look picture perfect. She eventually found her way into clay and this opened a whole new and exciting medium for her to explore. She has made friends with many sculptors who were kind enough to share some of their secrets. Still, she knows that sculpting is an expression of the artist’s outlook on life and this outlook needs to be hers. So as you study the various creations by Janice Andersen, please feel free to let yourself drift back to where ever you keep your fondest memories and let the grand celebration of life begin again.





Specialized patinas by Metal Arts Patina.