From Saturday morning till late in the afternoon, the art quad of Pierce College was alive with laughter, artwork and the scent of homemade food as roughly 300 members of the community visited the annual Ceramics Sale.
Inside, long wooden tables groaned under the weight of nearly 500 pieces of handmade sculpture and pottery, made by Pierce students and alumni.
The scent of fresh flowers filled the room, from the collection of orchids and wildflowers that sat in a few of the richly glazed clay vases.
“They’re able to get feedback from their customers, that’s important in the art world,” said Melody Cooper, associate professor of art and coordinator of the event.
“A lot of my students go on and become teachers themselves or sell their collections but they love to come back.
It really takes a village and we have one,” she said.
Cooper has taught at Pierce for the past ten years, and the art sale has been her way of serving the students by giving them a chance to exhibit their work and support their department at the same time.
The proceeds of this annual sale are split between the artists showcased and the Ceramics Department, to pay for new equipment and free workshops for students. On one table sit a collection of ceramic bowls that attract curious eyes.
The bowls look like dinosaur eggs, with rough outer shells, cracked open to reveal bright shades of blue and sea green glaze. The artist, Sara Wedman, calls the pieces “exploding planets.” Wedman, a former student of Cooper’s, now teaches in Sherman Oaks. But she still participates in the sale when she can, which has been hosted annually at Pierce for the past 10 years.
“It’s a family, a community,” said Wedman. “Once you join the family you’re always a part of it.” Families and friends and other local artists who got their start at Pierce flow in and out of the room, laughing and mingling as they coo over tea sets and delicate sculptures.
Through it all, Cooper weaves through the crowd, her red shawl billowing behind her as she moves, picking up her students’ work with loving hands and showing them off to visitors like a proud parent.
Throughout the quad, scents of spices, chilies, beans and rice waft through the air from the kitchen by the gallery. Visitors who purchased a $10 soup bowl got their choice from a menu of free homemade soups, chili, and Chinese curried fried rice, all made by student volunteers from the Ceramics Department. By the end of the day, roughly $550 dollars were made from the bowls alone, all the money going to the department. Outside in the quad, the Dembowich family sold their wares.
Zahavi Dembowich and her daughters, Nicole, 26, and Natalie, 23, are all current or former students of Cooper’s and sell homemade jewelry for the sale. Nicole, who goes by Nico, is also exhibiting her ceramics work in the sale.
Their dog Zoë, a Corgi-Alaskan Husky mix, bounces around their booth, tale wagging as she peaks under tablecloths and sniffs at customers. Outside vendors are often invited to sell their work outside the ceramics sale.
They tend to be students from the community-inclusive Extension classes, also taught by Cooper. On a board by the back door of the showroom that opens onto a grassy patio overlooking the valley, hang over a dozen shining palm-shaped amulets of varying sizes.
The Hamsa, a cultural icon in the Middle East that brings good luck and wellbeing, are an artistic fascination for Nico, who has been making them for years.
“It’s not just a Jewish thing, it’s the whole of the Middle East, whether you call them Hamsa or Hand of Fatima,” said Nico. “I had been in an Extension class, and I always wanted one of my own.
I made one for myself and I never stopped.” Nico has been at Pierce for as long as Cooper, who she considers to be another mother figure in her life.
“She’s like my mom. She’s one of those teachers who will get involved with her students in a way that I’ve only seen professors here do. At some point or another we’ve all been her students, students of the campus,” said Nico. “We’re all a family, we come out to support each other, we all get together in the summer, it really is a community.”
Ceramics Zahava Dembowich displays her ceramics and ceramic jewelry (Chris Audish)
