[gentle music]
- As a young person, I had such a diverse background,
and I spent a lot of time in Asia, in Taiwan.
My first experience in the arts was Chinese brush painting,
and that was a wonderful experience for me.
- I came to the United States, go to school,
majored in biology.
And then later on went to medical school,
and I never thought I'll become a potter.
- What kind of glaze is this? - That's green tea dust.
I was neurosurgeon, and then one of my patients,
happened she was potter.
One day we were talking.
I told her I need a hobby because I'm very, very tired.
I got long hours.
I need something to relax.
She told me, "Why don't you learn how to make pots?"
And I got so much freedom.
I'm able to do whatever I want in this country,
so I hooked on clay.
First time I touch the clay, I just fall in love with it.
Every time I take care of my patients, I look at their skull,
I think about pots, how to make a pot like it.
So my second sabbatical, I'm still on sabbatical.
I never go back.
- I feel very fortunate
that I had this experience with the Asian culture
because it made my relationship
with my husband Cliff a lot easier.
I understood the culture.
I understood the language, their art.
I think it's difficult for two cultures
to come together and coexist,
not to mention man and woman coming together and coexisting.
When Cliff and I first met,
actually, there was an instant dislike of each other,
and I think part of it was those two egos coming together.
Then we slowly started to talk more,
and that's when he started to appreciate the fact
that I was so understanding of his culture,
and so we had something to talk about.
There became an ease between us,
but the thing that I think really glued us together
was our total dedication to what our focus was.
For him, it was the ceramics, and for me, it was the jewelry.
[gentle music]
- For many years, I lose touch with my parents
because I was afraid I changed what they want me to be.
And the day after my older son Douglas was born,
I say, "It's time for me to tell my parents.
They are grandparents now."
So I called them and then my father said,
"Being artist is very, very difficult life
and you must really, really poor." [laughs]
Following year, my mother comes.
We were driving a VW bus.
We need it.
Holding our clay, holding different things, you know.
My mother said, "I don't feel this car is safe
for you guys get in there."
Next day, took Holly shopping, came home with Mercedes.
Poor potter driving Mercedes. [laughs]
That's my life.
- We were young, struggling artists, no money,
and then Douglas came,
and boy, did that change my life a whole lot.
Now I had a business.
I'm a jeweler and now a mom.
You have a crying baby.
Customers come into the store,
and so what we would do to entertain him,
we would actually give him a big pot,
and he would take that pot
and he would push it to one end of the gallery
and push it back to the other end of the gallery,
and he'd just go back and forth, back and forth,
and, you know, of course it would get broken
at some point in time, [laughs]
but that's how we entertained him
when customers came to the store.
[bright music]
- Now, whole world know how I make this now. [laughs]
All righty, well, cheers. - Cheers.
- Cheers, cheers.
- I think the freedom in this country
and the ability to tailor what you want to do
as a profession and to your passion
really gave my father the ability
to forego his previous profession
and really become engulfed in the art profession,
and he really inspired that into us.
He basically just said, "Do whatever you guys want to do."
You don't have to follow us in our footsteps.
You can become an astronaut if you want.
You can become an engineer if you want, you know.
Just work hard and do whatever you're passionate about.
I actually did commercial photography in Philadelphia
for three years,
and then I decided to earn a more stable paycheck.
I went into computer programming,
and that's what I'm currently involved in.
- Before I put a piece of clay on my potter's wheel,
I already knew what shape, what style pot I want to make,
and also I knew what kind of pattern I want to carve on it.
In the beginning, I did not do that.
Happy-go-lucky.
Now after practice for so many years,
I know exactly what I'm doing.
Peach vase, I have one of these
in the White House permanent collection.
Now reside in Arkansas, Clinton Library.
I throw this vase on the potter's wheel.
After that, I carve, and then I add the branches on
and then I add the leaf on, and the leaf,
sometimes I use my knife to carve out,
cut it, and flip over.
[dog whines] [Holly laughs]
- Now you want to come out.
- My brother and myself both like to do work
with our parents.
I enjoyed more of the physical aspect of metal.
The forming of metal, the bending of metal.
Doug enjoyed the freeform aspect of pottery,
so we kind of had the perfect setup
for Doug and I to play with.
He went there and played with clay.
I went up to my mom's and played with metal.
I didn't really ever think about being an artist
because my parents, when you see what they went through,
wasn't really for me.
Wasn't the type of style that I wanted.
I would probably say that,
but it was something that was obviously interesting to me,
and I can see their artistic nature come out
in the work that I do today.
It's just a completely different world.
I'm an engineer, so I like to work with my hands.
I like to build stuff and see my creativity come to life,
but I don't know if I could be an artist for my life.
It's a bit too different and eccentric for my taste.
- I got this inspiration from the opening at the Renwick
that my husband just recently had.
He was wearing this beautiful boutonniere,
and to me, it just screamed
like it needed to be a piece of jewelry.
My poor husband; I'm so sorry.
My studio is above his and when I pound,
the sound just reverberates throughout his studio.
His work is peaceful and quiet and the hum of the wheel,
and then there's bam, bam, bam.
Doesn't go together at all. [laughs]
We take pieces of my husband's work
that has not been successful.
It has cracked in the kiln or the glaze has crawled.
We'll take a hammer to it and break it up,
and sometimes these shards break in really lovely ways,
and then I'm able to take
and actually make a piece of jewelry out of them.
I love the process of taking something that is useless
but yet still beautiful,
and being able to turn it into something that people can enjoy.
If you believe in destiny,
if you believe that there is a path in life
and if you follow it and not resist it,
it leads you someplace, and this is where it led me.
- Craft artists are just like family.
We know each other.
They see our children grow up.
We all in the same boat financially, personally.
Now my kids are grown.
When they were young, they go to show with us.
Everybody, they know their names,
they know how old they are, what they like.
When getting older, they ask them,
"Can you sit in my booth for a few minutes?
I can take a break."
My kids say, "Of course."
Just like a family.
[bright music]