JACK DUNNING

Pottery & Photography

Jack Dunning was born in the United States in 1944. As an undergraduate, he studied Psychology and Art, with an emphasis on ceramics and design. At the age of 24, he and his young family moved to Canada in search of a less war-oriented culture, and to pursue graduate studies in Psychology, which led to an academic career at Algoma University in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario.

Between teaching and running a beef farm with his wife Paula, he had little time to express his artistic side, but he continued with photography as a hobby and never lost his desire to return to his artistic interests.

In 1996, with retirement approaching, he took up pottery once more, morphing into a more-or-less full-time potter by the time he actually retired in 2006—but never venturing far from home without a camera in tow.  He displays and sells pottery at craft shows and at a number of galleries throughout Ontario, and in the last five years has begun to display and sell his photographs along with his ceramic work.

For the photographer, the eastern shore of Lake Superior, just a short drive from Jack’s home, offers amazing landscape and fascinating details of the wilderness and lakeshore. This is the country that inspired Canada’s famous Group of Seven. Jack revels in the contrast between that wilderness and the colourful details of Guanajuato, where he spends his winter.  In both places, his avid interest in texture, pattern and colour leads his eye to relationships and details in his environment.

“I am especially drawn to the little things in our environment—the things we pass again and again without even noticing”