Whether a visitor, a first day Guild member or a long time regular, if you have been to the studio on a Friday afternoon, you have met Jean Calicura, the Friday afternoon monitor. She is the quiet gracious potter who usually sits at a worktable facing the door. She is quick to greet visitors at the door, welcoming to new potters and a good friend to the long time regulars.
Jean started taking ceramic classes here at the studio in 1983 with Andrée Thompson. She had high aspirations of producing a twelve-piece dinner set in that class and admits that it didn’t take her long to arrive at the conclusion she might not finish the set in the ten weeks. It was an introduction to hand-building that kept her from quitting and began Jean’s love for the slab roller, rolling pins and hump molds.
Jean grew up in Chicago, where a high school friend got her interested in modeling. She attended Northwestern University and majored in speech. This explains why she is a stickler for pronouncing words properly. Try pronouncing Illminite as Illuminite around her some day; she’ll gently and kindly give you the correct pronunciation. It was a word I mispronounced when I first came to the studio — not anymore, however — thanks for the correction, Jean!
 After college Jean made her way to Hollywood where she embarked on an acting career. Jean sang and danced in a few commercials, danced with the Ken Murray’s Blackouts, which was a Vaudeville type show. She also had a short stint with the re-formed Harry James Band, which was one of the founder memories of her show biz days. Before moving to Northern California, Jean was an assistant to a director of TV and radio. All this confirms my first impression of Jean; she always seemed like a former model or retired actress laying low in Walnut Creek. Jean and her husband Rick, the Mac Guru, currently live in Pleasant Hill.
Jean’s Artwork is very architectural with clean lines and attention to detail, yet simple and powerfully crafted. She creates interesting images inspired from all sorts of magazines, newspapers and books. Also, she is not afraid to make a sketch of a form she is going to try. Every element in her forms is very calculated and the intentional approach to crafting her pieces is what gives her work that special quality of design. Her mother was a wallpaper designer, which might explain the repetitive patterns she incorporates into her functional pieces.
To describe Jean is somewhat of a challenge and no words could begin to define her. Sit and talk to her around lunch time any Friday afternoon and you will believe me. Jean is a great example of what I think a monitor should be. All the monitors do an outstanding job, but the focus this month is of course Jean, so forgive me if I sound like she is God’s gift to the studio.
I think my expectations of any monitor are a bit different than most in the studio. Not only do I teach a couple of classes in the studio I also assist Pete in the daily operations of the studio. Therefore, my viewpoint might seem different than anyone else. I also have worked in four other ceramic studios as a student tech or as an intern before coming to Walnut Creek. Our studio is hands down better than any other public or private ceramic studio in Northern California. Our studio has great equipment and polite understanding paid staff, but that isn’t why I feel it’s the best studio around. Our studio is clean and relatively free of visible clutter. Despite a few contrary opinions our facility is well run and is user friendly. The monitors’ police our studio with smiles. They inform the wandering public with child or dog in tow about our program. They do a wonderful community service. All of our monitors help make the Civic Arts ceramic studio the best. If you use the open workshop on Friday afternoon, you will see first hand a fine example of an outstanding monitor and artist. Jean takes her job seriously, following through on all aspects of her roll. After I have a day of finding lost bowls, loading and unloading kilns and recycling a ton of clay, literally; it is nice to walk out into the studio and Jean has put up all the stools, wiped down all the horizontal surfaces, twice, and picked up or thrown away any superfluous matter. But most of all, what I appreciate about Jean Calicura is her warm and friendly presence which permeates the entire room. We defintely have an awesome studio culture and all the monitors add to it, but Jean Calicura definitely enhances it. |
