Ex-local finds pot of gold in Ojai

Gail Davis

Aside from those who have a passion for cookie jars, most Costa Mesa

residents probably don’t remember much about Joe Pelka.

The self-proclaimed potter says he was never appreciated much in this

area for his artistic endeavors.

So eight years ago, he and his wife packed their bags and moved from

Costa Mesa to Ojai, the sleepy little art colony in Ventura County.

That’s when something clicked, he said. The atmosphere was different.

People started buying his work.

“The attitude in Orange County was: potter ... bum,” he said. “But

here, the community supports artists. If you’re a potter, they like you.

The Chamber of Commerce wants you to be a member.”

Pelka’s work is on display at the Ojai Valley Museum through July 30,

along with nature prints by F.G. Hochberg of Santa Barbara.

The vases, mostly with koi themes, have earned Pelka a spot at some of

the West Coast’s top juried arts festivals, and sell for $160 to $1,000

apiece.

Pelka said he developed his trade as a potter by throwing rocks at

fish.

Not pottery shards, he says. It wasn’t artistic frustration.

They were just rocks and he was a kid. He loved koi, the elegant big

brothers to common goldfish, and spent countless hours at a koi farm near

his Orange County home, throwing pebbles into the corners of the fish

ponds.

The koi would race to the rocks, expecting food.

Pelka was fascinated by their grace as they slipped through the water

in chorus.

His work today is a far cry from his first professional work with

ceramics: glazing cookie jars in Costa Mesa. Pelka says he still can’t

believe his good fortune to build a career by creating what he likes:

koi.

“It’s ‘trust your instincts,’ ” he said.

Instinct and success didn’t always go hand in hand.

Pottery first became a passion for him in a high school ceramics

class. He expanded his skills through ceramics classes at a junior

college, which opened the door to the cookie jar job -- hardly the

artistic life he envisioned, but it paid the bills, Pelka said.

Meanwhile, he continued classes at the junior college and recalls an

assignment that formed the basis for most of his work.

He was assigned to make an exact replica of a utilitarian water jug,

with clay of the same chemical makeup of the original, and fired to

produce the same end-product.

Next, the instructor had him create a pot slightly varied from the

original, then a pot slightly varied from that, and on and on, further

from the original.

“I continue to do that; it’s a great assignment,” Pelka said. “You’ve

got a base that’s legitimate, you learn that clay’s got certain

properties and that you’ve got to play by the rules.”

The assignment taught him to be creative, he said, but still to stay

true to the classic, utilitarian function of pottery. Important lesson,

but his pots still didn’t sell and the day jobs continued: From cookie

jar glazer he switched to drill operator at an aircraft plant, then a

cabinetmaker, but kept making ceramics on the side.

Almost three years ago, he gave up his job as a cabinetmaker to make

ceramics full-time. His wife handles the business side of his studio,

freeing him to spend more time at his craft, he said, which has made even

more of a difference.

In the past two years, his work has evolved from small pieces in muted

tones, to elegant, vividly colored vases of all sizes -- some with flying

anemone-like extensions just below the lip, faintly reminiscent of jug

handles.

He said he enjoys experimenting, and one recent venture, on display at

the museum, is a 2-foot-tall garden mural of koi, framed in a black,

polished wood frame.

“The cabinetmaking has come in handy,” he said.