“California Ceramics”

Second Annual Ceramics Show and Sale  

ABOUT THE ARTISTS

Jacqueline Butts

Jacqueline Butts is a veteran Santa Cruz ceramic artist with a strikingly unique style refined over many years of experimentation.  Her work consists of thoughtfully designed blackware with a strong Japanese influence.  Her forms include bowls, vases, pitchers, boxes, teapots, and tea bowls.  Jacqueline integrates bamboo, caning material, and other organic elements into her work to create handles or decorative accents on her pieces.  Her work combines slab construction, minimal textures, and subtle organic lines, giving each piece an understated elegance of form.  

Adrian John Castelo

Madera artist Adrian Castelo is constantly experimenting with new ideas, glazes, and forms.  His most striking works include hand-constructed vases and teapots with delicate leaf-like elements, wrapped like layers of an onion around a solid body.  These organic constructions veil the classic form of the vessel with sculptural details that give each piece a unique character and a life of its own.

Mark Eaton

Visalia artist Mark Eaton has been creating art pottery since the 1970s.  With two art degrees, and more than two decades experience as a teacher and working artist, Eaton has a deep understanding of what it means to survive as an artist.  Eaton’s work ranges from utilitarian ware to high concept works influenced by ideas and styles that have intrigued him over the years.  His current works include  extruded bottles and stoneware vessels entitled "ichibana" Japanese for "One Flower", with formal elements that remind the viewer of baskets or teapots.  

Ken Foster

Oakhurst artist Ken Foster creates hand painted functional ware a variety of forms and styles. Ken has been a professional potter since the 1970s, and owns and operates Oakhurst Pottery, a community pottery studio in the California foothills just south of Yosemite National Park.  Ken's ceramics are inspired by his desire to create works of art that are both beautiful and functional.  His pieces combine bold color and intuitive graphic style with floral designs inspired by nature.  

Rami Hanna

Rami Hanna creates low fire terra cotta wall hangings and vases suitable for interior and garden display.  Her pieces combine earthy color schemes, arboreal applied elements, and sculpted faces inspired by mythological figures, as well as by friends and family.  Rami is a Fresno resident, and a member of the San Juaquin Clay Association. 

Steve Hum

Steve Hum has been perfecting his skills as a ceramist for 15 years.  Steve creates functional stoneware  with stunningly beautiful glazes inspired by colors and patterns found in nature. Steve discovered his love of ceramics while attending University of Santa Cruz, and further developed his skills while working toward a master's degree at San Jose State University.  Steve currently teaches ceramics in Los Gatos.

Sandy Kinzie

Sandy Kinzie's background leading to clay was textile arts.  Her marriage to ceramicist Bob Kinzie inspired her to pursue her love for pottery, and resulted in the couple's joint studio endeavor "Kinzie Stoneware". Sandy creates teapots, vases, saki sets, bowls, and other forms influenced by Japanese designs and techniques.  Her work also includes shino glazed pieces hand built from remnants of her husband's large scale slab-constructed ceramic sculptures.  Her works combine delicate yet powerful forms with inviting textures and a practiced graphic style.

Kris Kessey-McDonnell

Springville artist Kris Kessey-McDonnell creates unique stoneware vessels in a variety of forms inspired by the natural world.  Kessey-McDonnell teaches ceramics at Cal State Fresno. Her work is widely shown in the USA, and is in public and private collections throughout the United States, Australia, and Norway.  Whether working in sculpture, ceramics, printmaking, or photography, Ms. Kessey-McDonnell’s work stems from an acute sensitivity to nature and natural things.  

Ann Mendershausen

Mariposa artists Ann Mendershausen work creates art pottery using a wide range of techniques.  She is constantly experimenting with traditional styles and modifying them as new ideas are born during the process. Ann's works include functional stoneware and porcelain, Raku and pit fired vases, mosaic constructions, and sculptural ceramics with topical and animistic themes.  Ann teaches ceramics at Madera City college, and has shown widely in California and the Southwest.  

Amy Morgan

Amy Morgan studied clay under Ron Myers and Andy Nasisse at the University of Georgia, and  earned her MFA degree in 1995 at San Diego State University.   Amy currently teaches ceramics at Fresno City College.   Amy's work ranges from painted and carved pottery to whimsical jars and sculpture. She responds to her surroundings of orchards and animals to find her imagery and often peeks in travel books at more exotic plants and insects for ideas.  Amy is a member of the San Joaquin Clay Association, and has exhibited regionally and nationally for the past fifteen years.

Richard and Frances Powell

Richard and Frankie Powell are a multi-talented husband and wife team from North Fork California.  Richard is a painter, illustrator, and children's book artist.  Frankie's many skills include painting, printmaking, beadwork, and ceramic arts.  Both are experienced computer artists as well.  Frankie's contributions to the show included ceramic masks, and  leading the art team during the ceramics workshop at Heartland.  Richard participated in the Heartland workshop, helped out during the show, and played the guitar. (Thanks Rich!)

Cindy Searles

Santa Cruz artist Cindy Searles creates finely crafted hand carved and painted porcelain vases.  Cindy's designs focus on floral and animal forms.  Frogs, turtles, butterflies, and irises are common subjects in her work.  Each piece is elegantly carved in bold, deep relief.  Some are vibrantly painted and high fired for a beautiful glossy surface.  Others are monochromatic, with uniform blue-green glazes influenced by the Arts and Crafts style.  

Justin Smith

Justin Smith, AKA Augustine, creates functional and sculptural ceramics with a strong sense of design.  While Justin does some hand-building, his love is working on the wheel.  His experience includes cone 10 stoneware firing, salt firing, sagger firing, pit firing, and raku.  Justin focuses his attention on form and function, aiming for bold, yet simple forms that are pleasing to the eye.  Justin is currently working toward a Masters Degree at Cal State Fresno.

Rita Watkins

Rita Watkins creates hand painted  utilitarian pottery, art tiles, and decorative constructions.  Rita sells her works as a cohesive line know as Pastimes Pottery. Her subjects include images of women throughout the ages, engaged in their favorite pastimes.  Her constructed works include tables, clocks, frames, and mirrors.  Rita is secretary of the San Joaquin Clay Association.

Tiwi Wood

Born and raised in Jakarta, Indonesia, artist Tiwi Wood now makes her home in Fresno California. Tiwi holds a Masters Degree in linguistics from Fresno State, where her love for ceramics was ignited while studying under California ceramic artist Jim Shepard.  Tiwi creates salt-fired stoneware sculptural and utilitarian works, often with applied and incised animal and floral elements.  The forms she creates are traditional, but are constructed with an organic freedom that adds a wonderful asymmetry to the work.