The Human Condition: The Stephen and Pamela Hootkin Collection Sept. 2014 | Page 162

ARTISTS' BIOGRAPHIES

Warashina, Patti
American; (b. 1940, Spokane, WA; lives in Seattle, WA)
1964 MFA (ceramics) University of Washington, Seattle, WA
1962 BFA (ceramics) University of Washington, Seattle, WA

Patti Warashina’s whimsical figural sculptures address contemporary concerns using

SELECTED REFERENCES:

the human form. Warashina’s symbolic works draw from historical precedents such as

Hemachandra, Ray, ed.

Han Dynasty court figures and early Japanese haniwa, terra-cotta clay figures designed

Masters: Earthenware: Major

for ritual use. Often depicting figures in unexpected spaces and situations, Warashina’s
sculptures use humor and satire to examine human motives. Unsurprisingly, the artist
cites Surrealism and the California Funk movement of the 1960s and 1970s as early
influences on her work. While at the University of Washington at Seattle, she studied
with sculptors Robert Sperry, Harold Myers, Rudy Autio, Shoji and Shinsaku Hamada,

York: Lark Books, 2010.
Warashina, Patti. “You Captured
my Heart.” In In Her Own
Image: Women Working in
the Arts, edited by Elaine
Hedges and Ingrid Wendt,

and Ruth Penington. Warashina's teaching career began in the mid-1960s and includes

148–150. New York: The

positions at the University of Wisconsin, Eastern Michigan University, Cornish Art

Feminist Press at CUNY, 1993.

Academy in Seattle, and her a