Warashina - "Hammer Head" Porcelain sculpture of male figure with his head replaced by a hammer head getting ready to drive in nails

Patti Warashina • American B: 1940

Hammer Head C: 1987 • Porcelain 20” x 11 3/4” x 20”

“I was really (ticked) off.” (Okay, the actual quote was a bit more colorful.) But, by 1970, Patti Warashina was facing another life crisis. In full anger-mode during divorce from her first husband, Warashina created a series of “woman altars” that soothed her madness and smothered it in humor. Thank goodness she abandoned her first career path – dental hygienist. Someone might have gotten hurt.

Actually, Warashina’s entire life can be seen as an outsider expressing her frustrations and losses through razor-sharp humor and prodigious artistic talent.

After watching her father be broken, spiritually and physically, when his assets and Spokane dental practice were frozen during WWII, she found herself at the University of Washington in 1958. “Women then went to college to get married. As an Asian, you wouldn’t even consider a sorority. It was totally Anglo … you kind of knew your place.” Instead, Warashina found herself enthralled with art after a sophomore drawing class turned her away from dental studies. But, as always, she was on the outside looking in. “I found myself spending day and night at the art school, looking through windows and getting chased out by the campus police.”

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The perpetual misfit, Warashina was captivated by the absurd world view of Surrealists like Magritte and Bosch, rather than the rigid allegiance to shape, color and texture of the Abstract Expressionist movement sweeping the art world at the time. “I never took any figure classes at all. It wasn’t cool. I liked the ridiculousness (of the Surrealists). It’s just the way I saw the world.”

But being a square peg in a world of round holes just means you haven’t yet found a place to fit. Soon enough, west coast ceramics movements like California Funk found other artists expressing themselves with offbeat humor. Patti Warashina fit right in, in terms of worldview if not style.

Although born in America, Warashina’s art shows an Asian flare and precision. Her stories are told with oddly proportioned figures, intricate detail, and almost always with a humorous tilt. “I always have to be coming out of left field. Maybe it comes from playing with dolls while growing up and making up stories as you were playing. It’s never really left me.”

If all you have is a hammer, you tend to see every problem as a nail. Thank goodness Patti Warashina always has a different way of looking at things, and the talent to share her view.

Canton Museum of Art Permanent Collection • Gift of Freedman Tudor & John Cummins 87.10

4 Ways to Sound Smart When Viewing at The Canton Museum of Art

1.
“Her outsider viewpoint was shaped early by her family’s WWII experience when all their assets were frozen because of their ethnicity.”

2.
“She uses a wry sense of humor to express her views of everyday life through her art. Laughter soothes the savage beast.”

3.
“Her original influences were Surrealists who shared her absurdist view of the world.”

4.
“She was part of a west coast movement that used ceramics to create sculpture rather than functional works.”

Warashina Timeline. Scroll over images to see timeline.

1940

Born in Spokane to a first generation Japanese-American family. Her father was a dentist and she describes her mother as “a dreamer.” She grew up in the Spokane area with three sisters.

1942-45

Family members were forced to live in an Internment Camp with other Japanese-American citizens due to suspicions regarding their loyalties during war with Japan. Her father’s assets were frozen and his Spokane dental practice was prohibited from charging patients. The experience broke him spiritually and caused an early death.

1958-62

She entered the University of Washington, preparing to become a Dental Hygienist. However, her enjoyment of a sophomore drawing class led her in a different direction. She really found her happiness working with clay in ceramics classes.

1962

She had her first solo exhibition at the Phoenix Art Gallery.

1964

Received her Masters’ of Fine Arts ( MFA) degree from the University of Washington. She married fellow student, Fred Bauer, and subsequently exhibited as Patti Bauer from 1964-1970.

1970s

Divorce from Fred Bauer was difficult. She channeled her frustrations into a series of well-received sculptures collectively known as “Woman Altars.” During this time she brought national recognition to the department of ceramics at the University of Washington’s School of Art.

1973

Created “Altar with Egg” which she considered a turning point in her career. “After this point,” she said, “I felt like pretty much: if I can see it, I can build it.”

1975

Received a National Endowment for the Arts Grant.

1976

She married Robert Sperry who originally hired her to teach at the University of Washington School of Art.

1978

She received a prestigious Ford Foundation Grant.

1986

Completed a huge display for the Washington State Convention Center. A Procession pays homage to the cultural coming of age in Seattle using a series of over 70 small white porcelain figures. The figures included dozens of local art personalities, including Warashina’s husband, ceramicist Robert Sperry.

1998

Her husband, Robert Sperry, died. She still lives in the Eastlake, Washington, studio home they shared.

2003

Her work, Tule Lake Retreat marked the first time she addressed her family’s experiences during WWII when relatives were sent to the Tule Lake, Idaho, Internment Camp for Japanese-Americans.

2012

American Museum of Ceramic Art in Pomona, California, staged a retrospective exhibition: “Patti Warashina: Wit and Wisdom.” The next year this exhibition appeared at the Bellevue Arts Museum.