Born in Hawaii to Japanese immigrant parents, Toshiko Takaezu learned to create ceramics early in her career. She forged a revolutionary approach to clay by moving away from functional shapes. She made hollow, closed forms onto which she brushed, splashed, layered, or dripped glaze.

“You are not an artist simply because you paint or sculpt or make pots that cannot be used. An artist is a poet in his or her own medium. And when an artist produces a good piece, that work has mystery, an unsaid quality; it contains a spirit and is alive. There’s a nebulous feeling in the piece that cannot be pinpointed in words. That to me is good work!”—Toshiko Takaezu