Member Newsletter: Winter 2022

Kirkland Museum: Tell us what sparked your passion for ceramics.

Jutta Golas: It’s such a wonderful story that everybody asks me to please write a book. I married Peter (Golas) in 1967; immediately we went to Japan. 

We came to Kyoto and a couple of months later, this company, which is called Shimpo, contacted me. They manufacture potters’ wheels and they asked me to do a translation from French into English, which I completed. They asked if I would like to come see the facilities. There was this big room of potters’ wheels and a young woman. She was very friendly, and she motioned to sit down at the wheel. I had high heels on and red fingernails. I sat down, and she showed me how it moves and I put my hands on. It worked, it felt good and I actually made a pot! The whole process intrigued me so much that I came home and said, “Peter, I have to go back there.” They said, you can come back at any time, so for six months every Saturday I went back to make pots in this company. And, of course, then I had to buy a wheel, and the rest is history. 

It was very difficult in Japan to find somebody with whom I could study – that wasn’t done; this was 1967. After five years we came to Denver – Peter got a position at the University of Denver. I started potting like crazy. I very quickly managed to build a little studio in my backyard and a kiln. I met a woman whose husband had a restaurant in Denver. He wanted to have a shrimp bowl and sugar and creamer bowls, and a candle holder, and it morphed into hundreds and hundreds of these bowls because he had five different restaurants all over the United States. 

I always say to people, I paid my dues. For 15 years, I was a functional, prolific potter. And then we moved to a different location and I had to give up my wonderful, outdoor gas kiln. I decided I’m going to change because an electric kiln could not reproduce the beautiful colors I had achieved through high-fire stoneware firings and glazes. In my new studio, I did only freeform, because I decided that my pottery looked so anemic when done in an electric kiln. In the next show, I put a few of my freeform sculptures – not very sophisticated. People kept asking, where are your mugs, where are your wine goblets? I decided, I have to completely stop that and do only freeform. 

I have been very, very lucky because clay (sculpture) for the wall was not that common. Since then, lots of people wanted clay for the wall, and I did huge installations. My wall pieces are constructed in modules, so one module overlaps the other. The biggest sculpture I have made was 24 feet wide. You couldn’t tell that it wasn’t all one piece because the clay would overlap. That was very difficult because you have to figure out how to fasten it.

KM: What inspires your work – and what do you hope people take away from experiencing it? 

JG: What I’m inspired by is nature. 

My undulated forms were inspired by cloud formations when I was playing tennis with my husband. 

One day my husband and I walked in Aspen along Hunter Creek. It is so beautiful. There are rocks in the creek all the way up, and one rock is smoother and nicer than the other. I said, I have to make rocks, I have to make spheres! Eventually I found out how to make spheres; I draped clay over a tennis ball. I have put spheres everywhere. 

KM: What’s your creative process like?

JG: I’m totally self-taught. I never went to a university to take a class. I went to some workshops, but I experimented. Everything was experimentation, and I still experiment today. 

I have ideas all the time. There may be an interesting tree or a crack in the road. I am constantly looking and thinking, what could I do there, what color would be nice with that? I don’t use the potter’s wheel anymore. Most of my work is done with a slab roller, where you put the clay on and you roll it and you get a sheet of clay. Then, you take this sheet and you mold it into undulated shapes. 

What amazes me is how everything evolved over 45 years. When I look at all the different things I have made, it amazes me. I never stop, and the last chapter is not written yet. 

KM: What are you working on now/what’s next for you?

JG: I have never stopped working. 

There is a small show now (at D’art Gallery until Dec. 24), and in February I will have a two-person gallery show with a photographer from Colorado Springs, Seth Mayer. 

If you’re always working, one thing leads to another. I think the creative process thrives on being used, constantly. Not everything gets realized, but in the end I’ve tried.

In Italy (for the Biennial), I saw so many butterflies. I must tell you, I have butterflies on my mind. Everywhere I look, I see butterflies. I will be making a sculpture with butterflies. I am thinking of a big wall piece with butterflies. 

KM: Tell us about your piece that’s on display at the Kirkland – Dialogue.

JG: I made this boat shape – I sold a bunch of those to a Chinese hotel. I had just fired two pieces; I thought, let’s see what happens, so I put one piece on top of the other. I thought, wow, look at that. I loved the opening. So my next project was to make that piece that Kirkland has in the collection. 

Often, when I have things sitting around the studio and I need the space, I put one thing on top of another. If you are open to it, inspiration is always there. 

KM: You also have items available in the Museum Store. Tell us about what items of yours are available.

JG: I have tried to make smaller things that are appropriate for Kirkland’s gift store. I have wall vases, bowls that I call “fragility of life bowls” because they are very, very fragile. They were inspired by a little bird’s nest that I discovered in a most precarious situation on a ranch. I was so touched – there were three little eggs in there. When I returned, I made a little nest. 

KM: You’re also a member. Why do you choose to support the Kirkland Museum? 

JG: I love the Kirkland, I love the enormous variety that the museum has, and I support it whenever I can. It’s probably my favorite museum. 

This interview has been condensed for clarity and space.