Meet your Monitors: Sandy Ritchie
Many CAG members already know Sandy as the friendly lady with the full head of straw-blonde hair, big smile, and great stories. She is already popular because she volunteers as a monitor on Friday afternoons, splitting that shift with Michelle Ostrie. If that isn’t enough, she is one of those rare people who do it all—handbuilding, sculpture, and throwing. Well, now we have another reason to appreciate Sandy: she has agreed to accept the position of Secretary for the CAG Board!
I must report, however, that Sandy was not terribly excited about having an article about her appear in Kiln’ Time. In fact, she wanted to chuck the whole idea. Only by exercising extreme charm could I induce Sandy to agree to the interview.
It’s a well-known fact that ceramicists are made, not born. (Right?) Most of us have some contact with ceramics or pottery that stimulates that initial interest or fascination with mud. A Freudian might be able to help us out here…but we’ll save that for another day. Anyway, Sandy is no exception—her sister-in-law was a potter who introduced her to ceramics, which finally induced Sandy to sign up for her first pottery class back in 1999.
Andrée Singer Thompson, who apparently was something of a legend around the studio at the time, taught Sandy’s first pottery course. This was a night class in figurative sculpture. This woman sounds like quite an accomplished ceramicist as well as a great teacher-- Sandy says that she taught figurative sculpture, a raku class, and a throwing class as well!
Being one of the newbie potters, I was a little unsure what Sandy was talking about here. Is “figurative sculpture” different from “literal sculpture”? It turns out that figurative sculpture is, in fact, sculpting the human figure using live models. This sounds rather awkward and difficult to me, but of course I am a wheel person, so anything without a wheel attached to it strikes me as a little unusual. Sandy really enjoyed figurative sculpture and was disappointed when that type of class was eventually eliminated several years ago.
She then decided to try the wheel, and for the past three years or so, that’s where she has focused a lot of her energy. I have had the privilege of working beside her on many occasions, and she makes a wonderful wheel-mate. A great storyteller as I said, but also a really good listener wrapped into one package. Clearly her non-wheel background has given her a big leg-up, because I notice with envy that she has really progressed rapidly with her throwing, too.
Over the past few months, Susan Sokhoroff and Cathy Minard, who are good friends of Sandy (and who also have both put a lot of energy into CAG-thank you, ladies!) have been gently encouraging Sandy to take the CAG Board Secretary position. Once the bruises cleared, she emerged as the new CAG Board Secretary.
Along with her throwing work, Sandy continues to do sculptural pieces, most recently consisting of animal forms including squirrels, other small mammals and chickens, which I don’t think are mammals. The beautiful and lifelike sculpture of the chicken that recently resided in the studio was the work of Sandy Ritchie.
Most recently Sandy has taken Roger Yee’s Saturday AM class. She really enjoyed the energy of the class, and found Roger’s advice and teaching very helpful. In this new session Sandy is taking the Friday night raku class with Michael Berkeley, another teacher that Sandy enjoys a lot. She likes the immediate gratification of the raku process, and misses the final “raku night” of other ceramics classes in times past.
Sandy’s motivation to be on the Board really boils down to her desire to “do her bit” for the studio. She does have some items she would like to push for, though, as well. She would love to see the studio resurrect the sculpture class that she enjoyed so much. Also, she mentioned the possibility of bringing back the final raku night custom for other non-raku classes. Sandy made the point that the final night of a ceramics class, other than saying goodbye to friends, is to some degree wasted time, since new work can’t really be done.
On a personal note, Sandy lives here in Walnut Creek, in a house with a large yard. She says the yard is “littered with bodies,” which are the sculpture pieces that she’s made in her various sculpture classes. I wonder what her neighbors think. She is a retired special education teacher who is lucky enough to have her children and grandchildren all here locally. She enjoys spending time with them, of course, but also enjoys hiking, backpacking, reading and gardening, among other things. She recently read Unbroken by Laura
Sandy is planning an interesting hiking trip to a rustic resort near Mount Lassen. After hiking into the place, Sandy and her companions will spend a few days taking day hikes, swimming, horseback riding, and just relaxing. Then they stroll out and head home. Sounds like a great trip!
Speaking of inspiration, Sandy finds lots of inspiration among the other ceramicists at the studio as well as the teachers. She enjoys observing wildlife while hiking and these subjects also find their way into her work. However, Sandy misses the figurative sculpture, and hopes it will someday return.
Sandy is a genuinely nice person, interested in pulling her weight, with a lot of energy. She does a lot of things very well, and I think she will make a real contribution to our CAG Board. Thank you, Sandy!