Michael C. Anderson     Bio

Michael Anderson grew up in the Willamette Valley, fishing for crawdads and bluegills and exploring the forests from ferns to treetops.  Son of an Architect and builder, he was reading plans as a toddler from his mother’s lap and later learning better treehouse building skills from his father.  He loved play dough and mud, using it to pave roads in matchbox car cities and to form watertight dams on Saum Creek.

Art was always a factor in and out of school, drawing, block printing, silk screening……but clay did not take hold until college.  The draw of fuel kilns, master teacher John Takahara, and a useful, tactile, and permanent art form took over and, when the results sold, it became not only a passion but a possibility of more. Mike taught a couple of years in eastern Idaho, as his degree is in Education.   There he met his wife and subsequently followed her to Cordova Alaska in 1982.

In Cordova, Alaska Mike did illustrations for Fathom Graphics; illustrating several books, the city logo, and putting together Coloring Cordova.

Mike also discovered he would need to fire a kiln with oil, and after some research built a small 6 cubic foot kiln and fired it using old boiler parts.  His first show at Fathom Gallery sold out and was followed shortly by a commission to place art in Mt Eccles Elementary School.  The garage was outgrown.  As was the home as children expanded the family.  A second commission was completed in the newly built studio and fired in the newly built kiln.  The house was completed and a third commission followed.  His work is still done in the studio above Cordova overlooking Orca Inlet.

Michael’s ceramic art started out as playful functional pottery and those roots remain.  The commission for Islands and Oceans Visitor Center was a milestone.  There he worked with the building contractor, other artists and subcontractors to do more integrated art.  He found that this opened even more possibilities and that he really enjoyed the collaboration.  Thunder Mountain High School in Juneau again reinforced that gift for collaboration.  Art for William Jack Hernandez Sport Fish Hatchery required that he understand the fish rearing process to develop integrated art. Most recently, he was observing herons in their rookery on the Boise River for the Boise WaterShed project.

His public art can be found in many locations including the Kodiak ADF&G Near Is. Research Facility, University of Alaska Fairbanks, the Valdez Ferry Terminal, Islands and Oceans Visitor Center in Homer, the AMHS ferry vessel Kennicott, Sitka HS, Ketchikan HS, Thunder Mountain HS, Ocean View Elementary School, Mt. Eccles Elementary, William Jack Hernandez Sport fish Hatchery and the WaterShed in Boise ID.  His work is part of collections at the Cordova Museum, Valdez Museum, and the Pratt Museum in Homer.   Privately his art work is enjoyed across the country, maybe the world, as functional pieces, art works and architectural features.