Local Artist

Barbara Tocher - Ceramics and Candles

It all began from visiting my mother's ceramics class when I was a teenager. The teacher put me in front of a potter's wheel and gave me instructions for centering the piece of clay. The clay pushed my hands and arms and upper body around, doing its will and leaving me out of control. With embarrassment I decided not to continue this session, but put this experience away to be revisited at a later time. I did not return to a potter's wheel for thirty years.

Eventually the wheel was mastered and the shape of the bowl became simple yet elegant, calling out as a palette needing to be drawn upon.

I love clay. I love the metamorphosis of that soft, wet stuff as it moves toward the hard and sturdy fired bowl. The bowl calls to have its exterior covered with the colors and shapes of the desert, to be carved with the action of the Pacific waves and sky, the shapes of geometry, to be sculpted and added to and carved.

The artist invites you to observe the contrast of elements that form the whole. From wet and pliable to dry and rigid. From the control of being shaped on the potter's wheel to the nearly uncontrollable nature of the fire. The dark, rough, sculptured exterior to the smooth, glazed, light collecting interior.

Fired and glazed clay is permanent. Not so with wax. The joy of making candles comes when they are beautiful they can be kept; and when they aren't, they can be melted down and reformed. Yet another contrast.

Education: BS in Education, MS in Education
Teacher: Elementary school, math and art
Award: First Place, Ceramics, 2007 Art in the Redwoods

Contact Information: Barbara Tocher PO Box 557 Gualala, CA 95445 Email: barbara@tocher.net Phone: 707-884-3720

© copyright 2008 - all rights to the images are retained by the artist