Arthur Tobias - MASTER Potter, Artist, Educator and Historian.

Our fascinating conversation with Arthur covers a wide range of subjects including his work as a teacher, sculptor, writer, historian, and now Master Potter in Idyllwild. We weave through the history of 19th century firearms, and discuss Arthur’s book Cylinder Scenes, about American firearms and banknote engraver WL Ormsby. We touch on Dostoevsky’s novel the Demon, The Trial by Franz Kafka, and reflect on the “mind virus” that often runs rampant in societies. Arthur talks about his years as a teacher, and his true passion for inspiring and educating young people.

Beginning with a 1971 Bachelor of Arts from Southern Illinois University in Carbondale, Illinois, concentrating in ceramics and drawing, Art set up studio in an old shed on his parents' rural acreage, building a kiln, potter's wheel and other tools. Craft fairs and one-man exhibitions supplemented with wholesale and consignment sales and occasional work driving farm tractors kept him in beans and rice. His teaching life began formally in 1976 as Traveling Artist for the Arkansas Arts Center in Little Rock, followed by an eight-year stint as arts instructor with the state reform school system. He also returned to school, working on a Masters in Sculpture at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, studied animal and human anatomy, and began doing portrait busts in clay.

In 1985 Art relocated to Los Angeles where he initially continued doing portrait busts and expanding his figurative and non-figurative vocabulary, adding metals and glass, while supporting himself working as a packer at an art-glass gallery and assisting another sculptor doing large scale installations. Bronze casting, etching and lithography classes at the Otis Institute and associate degree work in computer tech at Los Angeles City College were part of the mix.

The late 'Eighties saw Art teaching visual arts classes for grades 6-12 in a private school in downtown L.A. The 'nineties saw him starting a computer graphics lab and teaching art at the Harvard-Westlake School in the San Fernando Valley, participating in one-man and group shows in Beverly Hills and Santa Monica, and earning a doctorate in education at UCLA. Following his hooding, Art worked as an independent researcher for the Getty Education Center, The Annenberg Foundation and the Los Angeles Unified School District, assessing educational programs in the arts. In the new century, as an adjunct professor at Cal State Dominguez Hills in Carson, Art taught visual and performing arts curricula to teaching-degree candidates, while still chairing and teaching in the visual arts department at Harvard-Westlake. At the same time Art managed to re-invigorate his studio work and returned to his first love, clay.

The new century also saw Art begin his writing and publishing career, with dozens of journal articles on visual arts education, the design and decoration of 19th century firearms and a book on the work of American firearms and banknote engraver W.L. Ormsby. It has been called by one reviewer the essential work on the topic.

In 2017, retired from high school and college teaching, Art and wife Debra relocated permanently to their vacation home in Pine Cove where Art has been fortunate to find a welcoming community and a position as Master Potter at Mountain Pottery Idyllwild. He now works daily in his studio to keep the pottery's shelves full and gives free lecture/demos once a month and occasional talks at the library. A recent presentation entitled The Strange Death of Vincent van Gogh was delivered to a packed room. A major journal article on cowboy cap-guns and a magazine piece about Art's beloved 1968 MGB sports car were published in 2023.

LINKS:

http://coltcylinderscenes.com/

https://mountainpotteryidy.com/