About the Artist

(Born 1940) "A ceramic sculptor, Patti Warashina was born in Spokane, Washington. Her father, who emigrated to the U.S. from Japan, married her mother, a second-generation Japanese American woman.

Warashina earned both a Bachelor's and a Master of Fine Arts degree from the University of Washington in 1964.  There she studied with sculptors, Robert Sperry, Harold Myers, Rudy Autio, Shoji and Shinsaku Hamada and Ruth Penington.

Her awards are many to include the Twining Humber Lifetime Achievement Award, 2002 and the Distinguished Alumnus Award from the University of Washington College of Arts and Sciences in 2003. She received the Governor's Award of Special Commendation for the Arts in 1980, in addition to grants from the National Endowment for the Arts in both 1975 and 1986. In 1978, Warashina was awarded through the World Craft Council Travel Grant, and Japan/ U.S. Friendship Committee, and Ford Foundation to participate at the World Crafts Conference in Kyoto, Japan.

Warashina is best known for satire, humor and dream state figures, expressed through low fire polychrome ceramic material. She together with Robert Sperry, Howard Kottler and Fred Baurer brought national recognition to the department of ceramics at the University of Washington's School of Art in the late 1970's." www.wheelsofclay.com

July 14-Sept 29, 2012 Patti Warashina's retrospective was staged in Pomona, California at the American Museum of Ceramic Art.  Titled "Patti Warashina: Wit & Wisdom", over 75 pieces were featured.