John Toki: Earning It

"There’s always a lot one won’t learn about someone, especially those not asking you to focus on them -- and John Toki is one of those people. ... It must have been twenty-five years ago and I was purchasing some clay ... The little store had been around for decades and it seemed that every potter and clay artist in the [area] knew the place and felt at home there. ... As no one was waiting for service, I started asking him about himself. Within ten minutes, and without fanfare, I learned that the quiet man at the sales counter was essentially conducting five careers," recounts Richard Whittaker on his first encounter with a memorable artist. In a rare and intimate conversation, much-loved San Francisco Bay Area artist, mentor, and polymath, John Toki unearths portraits of wisdom steeped through his life: "I visualize the process of making art as going on a long walk for miles and miles and miles and miles, and you get up over the hill — maybe the hill symbolizes the artwork — then you see the beautiful ocean, and this sunset. But you have to earn it.”

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