Class of 1967

Janet Marie Anderson

Internationally recognized artist of ink drawings and watercolors.

Work presented to governors and mayors.

Displayed work in the National Archives in Washington.

Inducted in Royal Oak High School Hall of Fame, 1997

Janet Marie Anderson graduated from Dondero High School in 1967. She was a member of the National Honor Society and the Art Club. She is probably the best known and most respected of all the students taught by Joe Fischer.

Janet's formal training included study at Cranbrook, the University of Michigan, Pratt Institute in Brooklyn and the Center for Creative Studies in Detroit. She began sketching scenes of Detroit using photographs collected by her grandfather who was a Captain of a Bob-Lo boat.

Ms. Anderson grew to love the city of Detroit, and her pen and ink drawings and watercolors of Detroit landmarks possess a vibrant freshness and clarity. It was said that she rendered a soul into the ships, buildings and landscapes. She received commissions from businesses and publishers who presented her works to celebrities and dignitaries visiting the metropolitan area.

The works by Janet Anderson have been displayed at the Detroit Institute of Art, the Fisher Building and the National Archives in Washington D. C. The Detroit Historical Museum has included her drawings and watercolors in the Documenting Detroit exhibit. Copies of her work are still sold at the gift shop in the museum. Her lithograph of Dondero High School was a frequent gift from the staff to a retiree, and the sale of the lithograph was a fund raiser for the Royal Oak High School Hall of Fame.

When Janet passed away in 1996, a friend wrote: "she was a grand soul leaving her markings on the people she met and we who loved her.  She was an artist's artist who left her creative imprints on this world for future generations to know and love. Her prints will touch our hearts forever."

Janet Anderson was inducted into the Royal Oak High School Hall of Fame in 1997.