Toshiko Takaezu is one of the most important ceramicists in America – she is certainly one of a kind. Toshiko Takaezu: Portrait of an Artist is an award-winning half-hour documentary by State of the Arts producer Susan Wallner that explores the dramatic landscapes and simple pleasures that have influenced and informed the work of this highly original artist. Of Japanese descent and Hawaiian birth, Takaezu lives a life that some describe as "zen." Through compelling images of her work and interviews that verge on a philosophy of life, this documentary reveals the influences that have shaped her signature style.

In the 1950s, Toshiko Takaezu was at the forefront of the movement that took crafts into the world of fine arts. She is represented in museums world-wide, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and The Newark Museum. Her influence has also been felt as a teacher: for 25 years she was the head of the ceramics department at Princeton University. Not letting up her pace at all, in the late 1990s and early 200s, Takaezu made what many people consider her best-and biggest-work ever. Her bronze bells have been commissioned to commemorate occasions such as a 9/11 memorial at Princeton University.

Toshiko Takaezu: Portrait of an Artist puts the teabowls, bronze bells and 12 foot ceramic forests of this prolific and diverse potter into the context of her life: teaching, cooking, throwing her pots, gardening, and unstacking her kiln. The viewer travels from the surreal volcanic landscapes of the artist's native Hawaii to the fall harvest bounty in her rural New Jersey garden – seeing how, for this remarkable artist, all is one.

Watch a 2006 State of the Arts story about Takaezu’s most recent work

• also visit
  Charles Cowles Gallery
  www.cowlesgallery.com

Toshiko Takaezu: Portrait of an Artist - DVD
njnvideo@njn.org • 1-609-777-5093

This program received a New York Emmy for best original music.