Tony Natsoulas

I started making large ceramic sculptures in high school. My teacher was impressed with the work I was doing and recommended that I take concurrent classes at the local college, which was the University of California at Davis. At that time, a man was teaching there who would change my life and give me the incentive to pursue my art as a career. His name was Robert Arneson. After taking two classes with Bob in high school and having my eyes opened to art, I graduated from Davis High School and went to Sacramento State University where I took ceramic classes from Bob Brady. In 1979, I transferred back to University of California at Davis and got my Bachelor of Arts from there in 1982. I was so very fortunate to have been able to study and take classes from the cream of the crop of fine artists, such as Roy de Forrest, Wayne Thiebaud, and Manuel Neri and other prestigious artists. They all not only were very successful in their teaching professions, but working and showing artists as well which was a great role model for me. I then went to Maryland Institute, College of Art, for graduate school for a different perspective. Being homesick for sunny California and the art department at Davis, I came back to University of California at Davis and got my Master in Fine Arts in 1984. During my school days and for many years after that time I had been working on life size figurative ceramic sculptures. I concentrated on form and gesture not realism. I wanted the pieces to stand on the floor on their own two feet, drawing in their viewers, demanding a presence to be. interacted with. I want the viewer to be able to interpret whatever they like into each sculpture, even though I had an idea about what each one was to mean when sculpting them. I worked out all my feelings and thoughts in the clay based on social issues, phobias, struggles from within and political satire. When I got out of grad school, I was asked to be in the Rena Bransten gallery in San Francisco, where I had two successful shows. Since then I have been in museum and gallery exhibitions all around the world. Also over these years, I have been busy doing public and private commissions in clay, bronze, and fiberglass.

Like most artists, I start off my work with an inspiration. Inspiration is a very elusive thing. Absurd television shows, people, commercials, toys, cartoons, plays and movies that are nostalgic inspire me the most. I also look at other artists for inspiration such as Robert Arneson, Clayton Bailey, Red Grooms, David Gilhooly, Big Daddy Roth, and Arthur Gonzalez to name a few. Recently I have been concentrating on larger than life exaggerated ceramic busts of people that have inspired me on many different levels. For example, as a child I watched a television show entitled the Honeymooners. It stared Jackie Gleason as Ralph Kramden an over weight; loud and very opinionated man who was married to Audrey Meadows that played his wife Alice. During the days that this program aired women were portrayed as mothers, wives and happy homemakers. They had no opinions, made no fuss and everything was a neat and tidy package of dribble. The character played by Meadows, Alice, was very different from the rest of the housewives on television. She stood up for what she believed, she was not afraid of her loud overbearing husband. She was in control of herself and her surroundings. She was wise, firm, loving and still was able to be feminine. I admired the character of Alice and was drawn to sculpting her and immortalizing her in clay.