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Date: January 30 & 31st, 2027
Times: 10a - 5pm w/ 1 hr lunch
Level: All
Membership Price: $300 (Members can use code MEMBERS10 upon checkout to receive 10% off).
Workshop Description:
This workshop combines time exploring Mendocino's tidepools, connecting with the environment and drawing inspiration from its forms to create unique ceramic sculptures. Back in the studio we'll learn basic hand building and surface decoration techniques, re-imaging the future of these forms inspired by our observations in clay. Organisms in tide pools have adapted brilliantly to not only withstand, but thrive in, an environment that experiences constant and extreme changing conditions. From hard-shelled clams and crustaceans to venomous and colorful anemones and sea slugs, we’ll learn about the unique adaptations of these creatures and glean wisdom from them about our own survival in a changing world.
We will consider themes of speculative futures and science-fiction, hybridization, and climate-change while also considering ancestral wisdom and technologies by looking at the past, present, and future histories of the landscape and its human stewards and settlers.
What to expect: time in the ocean, exploring and observing the tide pools and its inhabitants, working in clay and surface decoration in the studio (no prior clay experience required). Students should be prepared to be outside in coastal weather (can be windy, wet, and cold) and comfortable navigating rocks and uneven terrain.
If stormy conditions make tide pools inaccessible, the class will host an alternative excursion and pivot accordingly.
About the Instructor:
Kristiana Chan 莊礼恩 is a multimedia visual artist from the American South based in the Bay Area. Her work examines the material memory of the landscape and the excluded histories of the Asian American diaspora. She researches the political, historical, and environmental heritage of the landscape and its material elements and organisms, and incorporates their properties into her processes. She is interested in the relationships of themes of migration, labor, trade, and reciprocity with the natural world, challenging ideals of extractive capitalism and grounding her objects in material tactility to explore our future relationships with land, history, and resources.
Her previous projects have focused on the lost stories of early Chinese diaspora settlers in California, and their connections to industries like fishing and mining. These stories, images, and references entangle the historical and mythological, while the gathered materials attempt to transcend gaps in the written record. Chan is interested in themes of science and speculative fiction, and the littoral coastal zones, gleaning ancient wisdom from environments that have adapted to rapidly changing conditions.
She is a recipient of the Rydell Visual Arts Fellowship and has held residencies at Anderson Ranch Arts Center, ACRE, Tides Institute of Art and History, and Stelo Arts. She has shown at the Asian Art Museum, Montalvo Art Center, Bolinas Art Museum, Santa Cruz Museum of Art and History, Morgann Trumbull, SOMArts, Vessel Gallery, Kearny Street Workshop, and the Monterey Art Museum. Kristiana is currently an MFA candidate at the University of California, Berkeley (Class of 2026).
Required Materials:
Shoes that can get wet for comfortable tide pooling (Tevas, rubber boots, waders), and clothing layers for warmth
Optional Materials:
Personal ceramic tools