Patti Warashina
Birth Date: 1940

Artist Gallery
Ceramic sculptor Patti Warashina was born in Spokane, Washington to Japanese American parents. She was the youngest of three children and went to college in Seattle and received her art degrees from the University of Washington. As an undergraduate, Warashina became interested in pottery and decided to become an artist. Although her parents supported her having a career, they weren’t sure that being an artist qualified. “My mom told me being an artist is fine, but I should also have a skill to fall back on, like dental hygienist.” She married Fred Bauer, and from 1964 to 1970 exhibited as Patti Bauer. Patti Warashina has been a major force in the ceramic field for many years. She is a Seattle artist who is known for the tongue and cheek, satirical humor in her work. For Warashina, drawing is a paramount issue, from conception through execution and on the finished sculpture. Her early influences include California Funk, Surrealism, and experimental West Coast ceramic sculpture from the 50s and 60s. Her work is satirical and humorous with dream like figures. Along with fellow artists Robert Sperry (whom she later married), Fred Baue,r and Howard Kottler, Warashina brought national recognition to the ceramics department at the University of Washington’s School of Art. The following excerpt was taken from an interview with Patti Warashina in American Ceramics in 1984: “I began studying pottery in 1960, but one of my main reasons I made pots was to use them as canvases for paintings. During my undergraduate years at the University of Washington, I was influenced by the paintings of Klee, Gorky and Miró. Also I was very interested in Surrealism. I made simple functional pottery with lots of surface decoration, but I also got into hand building more complex shapes. Then in graduate school at the University of Washington, I built a series of life-sized, ornate chairs and a series of fantastic machines, which were inspired by Nevelson’s sculptures. In 1965, low fire glazes where were almost never used by clay artists, but I wanted bright colors, so I worked with acrylic paints. A few years later I started to use low fire glazes, although occasionally I still painted with acrylic. Voulkos, Abstract Expressionism, and the Big Gesture were “in” then, but even though I admired Voulkos, I never was comfortable with Abstract Expressionism, never felt it was really me. Who I really admired was Kenny Price – a renegade for that time with big egg shapes with worms and his hard edges. His work was very polished and I like it a lot.”