Sam Takeuchi, Vessel
NOTE: During my recent trip to Santa Fe to teach an Objects of Devotion workshop at Paseo Pottery, I had the pleasure of visiting the studios of two friends: Sam Takeuchi in Santa Fe and Hebé Garcia in Abiquiú. Their studios were wonderfully different, and each inspired me profoundly. In Sam’s world, I felt the quiet harmony of art and daily life woven together. In Hebé’s, I recognized something of my own artistic dreams, expressed through her unmistakable vision. I’m still thinking about what both visits gave me, and I want to share a little of each experience—beginning with Sam.
I had last seen Sam Takeuchi in February when we were in Taos for the Encantos Exhibition at the Taos Ceramic Center. We had talked during the show, and he and I agreed to trade work – a portrait of Sam from me to him, and a ceramic piece from him to me. When I saw him again, just two weeks ago on a visit to pick up my piece, his studio was even more magical.
There is a quiet continuity between Sam’s studio, his work, and the spaces where he shows it along with other Japanese claywork . Moving through them, I had the feeling that everything belonged to the same beautiful, unhurried thought. The way he builds, works, and lives seems all of a piece.
He had transformed what was essentially a storage area in his live-in studio into a combination gallery and serene gathering area. An architect, Sam had done this virtually by himself with the elegant, spare sense of space that defines his work and life. It was amazing to see what had happened in the eight months since we had been there!
The large platter piece on the left is by legendary potter Peter Voulkos, who was a good friend of Sam’s. Everywhere you look, there is an opportunity for a photograph.
Beautiful, humble, eloquent, elegant—each describes something about the experience, but none quite captures the whole. There is a Zen sensibility that I felt throughout his world: an attentiveness to materials and space, a sense of enough. Even the humble things seem to have room to speak.
As artists, we spend a great deal of time thinking about our work. We think about materials, technique, meaning, and what comes next. We also have the rest of our lives to attend to, and sometimes the distance between those two things can feel considerable.
At Sam’s, I felt how closely they could belong together.
That stayed with me after the visit. I began wondering about the small choices that shape my own working life. What do I surround myself with? What do I give my attention to? How does my studio support the work I hope to make—and the way I hope to feel while making it?
My own studio is full of gathered things, possibilities, and projects in various stages of becoming. I love its abundance and even its chaos. Sam’s world made me curious about how thoughtfully I inhabit my own.
Perhaps that is one of the gifts of visiting another artist: for a little while, we get to experience the choices that have become almost invisible to them. We see how a way of working can gradually become a way of living.
PS – you can see the post about the making of Sam’s portrait here.