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CAPTION TK
ARTS
ONE TO WATCH Girl from the North Country
MEGANHOOKERCERAMIC S. C O M
Arts
“I believe that one has to be in a somewhat grounded state before sitting down and centering clay on the wheel.”
HOW DID YOU GET INTO POTTERY? My first memory of a potter’s wheel is from childhood. My parents took me to a local art walk and a potter was throwing large vessels on a small round table spinning rapidly in circles. I was immediately intrigued. WHO OR WHAT INSPIRES YOU? I find inspiration in the natural world’s shapes and elements. Some pieces are a response and appreciation of the beauty and form in perhaps a tree limb, bark, water, a rock, lichen, the ocean, and the way light interacts with each of these. There are many incredible clay artists whose work I admire—some of the great ceramicists of the 20th century like Warren MacKenzie, Karen Karnes, Beatrice Wood, Shōji Hamada, and Otto and Vivika Heino. BETWEEN POTTERY, BARRO MERCADO, SURFING, AND FARMING, YOU ALSO TEACH?
I am a high school ceramics teacher at The Thacher School. I believe my role as an art teacher is to encourage curiosity and further my students’ creative process. I pass along all technical skills and conceptual knowledge of the medium I have and hope my students will be able to create a route for themselves once I’ve shown them the road map.
Clockwise from top left: STEPPING STONE mug ($35); “Scaling down was easy; the size seems normal now,” says Hooker of her tiny house. “It quickly becomes clear that the less things you have, the larger and more open the space feels”; LEMON LIME vases (from $50); Hooker at her home wheel.
PHOTOGRAPHS: GILDA HARIRI
Born in Ojai and raised in Ventura, MEGAN HOOKER is a potter, surfer, farmer, and teacher. She shares a tiny house with her boyfriend, Mike Soens, on an organic farm in Ojai, and together, they started a pottery collective called Barro Mercado, barromercado.com, featuring their wares as well as the work of some of their favorite artists. When Hooker isn’t throwing her signature bowl, she’s around the farm raising goats and chickens. A true California soul, Hooker values her craft, the animals in her care, and the community around her. Having come from a family with a long history of ranching and farming, Hooker’s love of the land is tradition. In so many ways, she carries the family ancestry of farming, not just by working on a farm, but also dabbling with other regenerative agricultural nonprofits in Ventura County. As an artist, Hooker has been influenced by nature and by her great-grandfather, who was a sculptor and professor at Scripps College. For the last 10 years, she’s been honing her skills at the wheel, documenting the chemical process of her favorite glaze recipes and the perfect kiln temperature for each glaze and piece. Hooker is generally unavailable by phone or e-mail, and to describe her as mysterious is an understatement. Her lack of attachment to electronics and social media is refreshing in an era of constant connectivity and disquiet, and her gift of “checking out” enables her to live out her life philosophy of “moving freely and quietly.” G I L D A H A R I R I