Gordon Motta
mottarts@hialoha.net
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Born: Hilo, Island of Hawai'i November 14, 1948

Bachelor of Architecture, 1972 California Polytechnic State University

Being naturally interested in math and science as well as the arts, I was encouraged by my older sister to study Architecture. This was indeed good advice since it combined those things I enjoyed into what I consider a Mother Art. It was my Junior year in college when I stumbled upon an upper class-man throwing a rather impressive large bowl. Glistening, wet, and fluid as it spun, I was awe struck, mesmerized, and hooked in the fall of 1968. I began my learning process and can still feel the wonderful satisfaction of creating the simplest of things, a bowl, a cup, a vase. Soon there were home made wheels, and experimental kilns with exploding bisque ware. There were successes and failures and always enormous fulfillment. I traveled all over California doing Craft Fairs at parks and malls and made a modest living, but yearned to be home in Hawai'i.

Upon my return and after reading about Shoji Hamada, I switched from brown to white clay. This brightened the basic base glazes and I began applying color and decoration as oxides with a brush. I was again able to learn from my childhood teacher, Kay Yamamoto, in workshops she was offering. This time I learned the techniques of Sumi painting. With this impressionistic technique, I record and represent the visual clichés of my visions of Hawai'i. Each of my pieces, though simple and functional in form, and affordable to use, contains a unique story of landscape, or plant life, or of the elements, or animals dear to us, some visual gift that makes each one special. Events like the solar eclipse, the various earthquakes and eruptions, the raging storms or the blistering droughts, little things or what ever is important today.

I now look forward to sharing my 30 plus years of experience with clay, offering workshops, classes and apprenticeships at local schools and at my home studio.

Home: Ahualoa, Island of Hawai'i 1974 to present.