Jordan MacLachlan (b.1959 Toronto, CA) has always had a surreal and extreme interest in, and affinity for, animals. From the age of four and through-out much of her child-hood Jordan believed that she was really an abandoned mountain lion cub whose mother had been shot – leading to being rescued by her actual human family.

Obsessive and compulsive behavior manifested, with her family’s tacit consent, by walking on all fours along with a reluctance to speak and refusal to eat unless it was from a dish on the floor. This drastic identity continued until her teenage years when her father was offered a research position at a university in Boston and the family moved to U.S.A.

Returning to Canada, Jordan has spent the decades since then working casually in various fields while her main focus has been functioning as a self-taught artist sculpting in clay.

Maclachlan’s large body of work gives visual relevance to her emotional relationship with animals. The remarkable and sometimes fantastical creatures remind us that we use them for food, sport, work, entertainment and experimentation as well as companionship.

Jordan MacLachlan’s work reflects her ongoing keen interest in animal husbandry and zoo-keeping techniques. The often hyper-realistic realistic portrayals of animals and people can be insightful to the point of voyeurism. At once enlightening and disturbing, her exceptional ceramic sculptures capture the visceral essence of both species.

Since 2011, when almost a lifetime of Maclachlan’s accumulated work became available publicly, her sculptures have been placed in private and public collections including the permanent collection of Burlington Art Gallery, Canada.