Patti Warashina
The human figure has fascinated ceramic sculptor Patti Warashina for most of her 55+ year art career. Her sustaining interest in the human figure is likely due to the fact that her own body is the closest resource from which she draws her ideas. The use of the body gives affirmation to Warashina's own daily existence, and serves as the subject of her own “visual diary” which, for Warashina, is a reminder, reflection, and observation of personal time and the civilization in which she lives. Warashina draws from her daily life and has an abnormal interest in the absurdity and foibles of human behavior, in which her figures have become the actors in her introspective narratives.
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Bio
Patti Warashina was born in Spokane, Washington, in 1940. She earned both her BFA and MFA from the University of Washington, Seattle, in 1964. She holds the title Professor Emerita, having retired from the University of Washington after 30 years of teaching.
Ms. Warashina was honored with two 50-year retrospective exhibitions in 2012 and 2013 at the American Museum of Ceramic Art, and the Bellevue Art Museum respectively. Two books have been written about Warashina’s career as a ceramic artist, Patti Warashina: Wit and Wisdom, published by AMOCA for the 2012 retrospective, and Patti Warashina, published by Natsoulas Press in 2021.
Her public collections include works in the Smithsonian, Washington, DC; American Craft Museum, New York City; Mint Museum, North Carolina; American Museum of Ceramic Art, Pomona, CA; L.A County Art Museum; University of Washington Meany Hall and University Medical Center, Seattle; the Detroit, Seattle, and Tacoma Art Museums.