Aina Pottery | about the potter

I grew up in Tokyo, one of the busiest cities in the world. We always have a lot of great art exhibitions from all over the world including ourselves, and I was one of the people who look forward to those events. But it seemed like I was spending my best only to keep up my life together and was too busy to create my own work.

The situation eventually started to change when I moved to Maui in 1999. I immediately fell in love with beautiful nature and it opened my heart. The time has ripened. I took a pottery class at Hui Noeau Visual Art Center in Makawao in a spring of 2003, and it was my destiny.

Since I started to create pots, I notice I am psychologically more stable and joyful. I express and release myself through all the process of pottery. My focus on making pots is both functional and artistic. I hope to impart a feeling of innocence and simplicity into my pots as well as to keep high quality of craftsmanship. Leaving some kind of hand made evidence, such as fingerprints and marks, is also enjoyable for me. So, precision is not my intention.

As a Japanese living in the United States, I have kept being amazed how beautiful and delicate Japanese traditional culture is whenever I visit my country. I appreciate that I inherited this factor and try to share with others in West.

Ayumi Watabe Ditamore