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Literary Statement RENOWNED CERAMIC ARTIST CAPTURES HIS CAREER IN A BOOK
Tony Natsoulas Photo by Linda Smolek
JL
By Jessica Laskey Open Studio
It’s only when you sit down to write a book about your life that you realize you didn’t take enough pictures.
“In the 40 years since undergrad, I have photos of almost nothing,” says celebrated ceramic sculptor Tony Natsoulas. “I have no photos of me and (Robert) Arneson, none of me and Wayne Thiebaud. Manuel Neri and I were good friends—I have no photos of that.
“These people coming up now are so lucky that they’ve taken so many pictures of everything. They’ll be able
to put books and movies together easily.”
Natsoulas has spent almost two years putting together a book about his life and art. The inspiration came as he approached his 63rd birthday— the age at which his mentor Arneson died in 1992.
“I’ve always had that in the back of my mind—you never know how long you’re going to live,” Natsoulas says. “As I was turning 63, I thought this might be a good time to put together what I’ve been doing for almost 40 years.”
Natsoulas’ career has spanned four decades, several cities, numerous teachers, hundreds of exhibitions and countless tons of clay. Born in Michigan to parents who steeped him in culture, Natsoulas soon discovered an affi nity for art—especially ceramic sculpture.
He immersed himself in the medium throughout high school and college, studying with Ruth Rippon and Robert Brady at Sacramento State and Arneson, Neri, Thiebaud and others at UC Davis.
With a master’s degree from UC Davis in 1985, Natsoulas became one of the best-known fi gurative ceramic artists in the nation. The Smithsonian named him one of the top 100 craft artists in the U.S. in 2004.
Now he’s fi tting it all into a book.
“I’m telling the whole story,” Natsoulas says, “starting with where our family came from in Greece, through high school when I started doing clay, to Chico and Turlock and eventually Sacramento, where I’ve had three different studios.”
Natsoulas enlisted colleagues and friends to write different parts of the book, including a forward by his uncle Theodor, an introduction by curator Philip E. Linhares and a chapter by Scott Shields, associate director and chief curator of the Crocker Art Museum. Jo Lauria, adjunct curator of the American Museum of Ceramic Art, wrote the body of the book. The work features more than 60 pictures of family, mentors, mementos and artwork.
Aside from his literary project, Natsoulas has been at work in his studio. A recent exhibit at the Sonoma Valley Museum of Art was a tribute to and retrospective of Natsoulas’ longtime friend and fellow sculptor Bailey, who died in 2020. The exhibition featured Natsoulas’ iconic busts of familiar faces and Bailey’s mixed-media robot sculptures.
Another exhibition, a solo show in Fresno, doesn’t go up until 2024, but Natsoulas is already on the job. Though the theme isn’t fi nal, the artist is certain it will include busts of people he fi nds inspiring both physically and personally.
“I love people’s faces, but they also have to have interesting backgrounds,” Natsoulas says. “I just found out that Josephine Baker was a spy in WWII and adopted 12 children from around the world. I thought she was just a beautiful performer, but this story behind her fl oors me. I have to make a sculpture of her. I want to do more (work) like that, celebrating heroes that the general population isn’t paying attention to. I’m very passionate about saving the world.”
Natsoulas’ book will be available at tonynatsoulas.com.
Jessica Laskey can be reached at jessrlaskey@gmail.com. Previous profi les can be found and shared at InsideSacramento.com. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram: @insidesacramento. n
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California Peace Offi cers’ Memorial Ceremony
PHOTOS BY LINDA SMOLEK
Hundreds of peace officers from throughout California recently gathered on state Capitol grounds with local and state dignitaries for the 44th Annual California Peace Officers’ Memorial Ceremony. This year, 36 officers who gave their lives in the line of duty were memorialized and formally honored.
A new bronze statue depicting a female officer was added to the California Peace Officers’ Memorial Monument. Of the officers honored this year, three were female: Officer Natalie Becky Corona of the Davis Police Department, Officer Tara Christina O’Sullivan of the Sacramento Police Department and Detective Marylou Hernandez Armer of the Santa Rosa Police Department.
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