Archives of American Art

Oral history interview with Paula Colton Winokur

Summary

Collection ID:
AAA.winoku11
Creators:
Winokur, Paula, 1935-
Riedel, Mija, 1958-
Nanette L. Laitman Documentation Project for Craft and Decorative Arts in America
Dates:
2011 July 21-22
Languages:
English
.
Physical Description:
9 Items
Sound recording: 9 sound files (6 hr., 24 min.)
171 Pages
Transcript
Repository:

Scope and Contents

Scope and Contents
An interview of Paula Colton Winokur conducted 2011 July 21-22, by Mija Riedel, for the Archives of American Art's Nanette L. Laitman Documentation Project for Craft and Decorative Arts in America, at Winokur's home and studio, in Horsham, Pennsylvania.
Scope and Contents
Paula speaks of taking drawing and painting classes at the Graphic Sketch Club (now the Fleischer Art Memorial) in Philadelphia at age 11; her first experience handling clay at 13 or 14 when taking a class at the Philadelphia Museum of Art; when her family agreed to send her to college, providing she became a teacher, and she attended the Tyler School of Art at Temple University as a painting major; the influence of her teacher Rudolf Staffel in her sophomore year when she took a ceramics class and fell in love with working in clay; meeting her husband Robert Winokur when they were students at Tyler, getting married in 1958, eventually having two sons; glaze testing to find a palette of glazes to use; moving to Massachusetts and starting Cape Street Pottery for their production pottery; her involvement with NCECA [National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts] and other professional organizations; when she began a 30-year teaching career at Beaver College in 1973 (more recently known as Arcadia University), building their ceramics department; changing from using stoneware to porcelain in 1970; making boxes and architectural forms; how she stopped making functional items when her first child was born and began creating the things she wanted to; the decision in 1982 to make landscapes and how geology, the Artic, and threats to the environment influence her work; the process she uses when creating texture; selling exclusively through the Helen Drutt Gallery beginning in 1973 until the gallery closed in 2011; the important influences in her work of artists such as Michael Heizer, Carl Andre, Richard Long, Richard Serra, Olafur Eliasson, and Steven De Staebler and others; the immense the geologic formations of Mesa Verde, the Rocky Mountains, Stonehenge, Alaska and Iceland are inspiring; various lecturing opportunities and exhibits through the years, as well as a working residency she took advantage of in Hungary in 1994; slowly moving away from glazes and instead using metallic sulfates for color; that her intention is to express the relationship between the internal part of herself and the external world for other people to experience and find something in common; the importance of a liberal arts education for art students; her gelatin and clay prints; the concern over collectors of clay art dying off and no new ones taking their places; that galleries are closing and Internet galleries are the norm; meeting photographer, Imogen Cunningham, and seeing her as a wonderful role model; and the feeling that the high cost of fuel and the invention of newer materials may end ceramic classes. Paula also recalls Lowell Nesbitt, Myrna Minter, Arlene Love, Dennis Leon, Boris Blai, Ted Randall, Val Cushing, Norm Schulman, Jim McKinnel, Gertrud Natzler, Otto Natzler, Ken Ferguson, Rose Slivka, Enrique Mestre, Sandy Simon, Wayne Higby, Richard Notkin, Graham Marks, Toshika Takaezu, Yvonne Bobrowicz, Ken Vavrek, Carol Sedestrom, Lois Moran, and Ken Shores and others.

Biographical / Historical

Biographical / Historical
Paula Colton Winokur (1935- ) is a ceramist in Horsham, Pennsylvania. Mija Riedel (1958- ) is a curator and writer from San Francisco, California.

Administration

Sponsor
Funding for this interview was provided by the Nanette L. Laitman Documentation Project for Craft and Decorative Arts in America.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
This interview is part of the Archives of American Art Oral History Program, started in 1958 to document the history of the visual arts in the United States, primarily through interviews with artists, historians, dealers, critics and administrators.

Digital Content


More Information

General

General
Originally recorded as 9 sound files. Duration is 6 hr., 24 min.


Keywords

Keywords table of terms and types.
Keyword Terms Keyword Types
Art -- Study and teaching Topical Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Ceramicists -- Pennsylvania Occupation Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Ceramics -- Study and teaching Topical Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Painting -- Study and teaching Topical Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Alaska Geographic Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Hungary Geographic Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Iceland Geographic Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Mesa Verde (Calif.) Geographic Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Rocky Mountains Geographic Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Stonehenge (England) Geographic Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Interviews Genre Form Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Sound recordings Genre Form Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Women artists Topical Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Women ceramicists Topical Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Andre, Carl, 1935- Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Blai, Boris, 1893-1985 Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Bobrowicz, Yvonne Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Cunningham, Imogen, 1883-1976 Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Cushing, Val M. Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
De Staebler, Stephen, 1933-2011 Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Ferguson, Ken, 1928-2004 Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Heizer, Michael, 1944- Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Higby, Wayne Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Leon, Dennis, 1933- Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Long, Richard, 1945- Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Love, Arlene, 1953- Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Marks, Graham, 1951- Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
McKinnell, James Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Mestre, Enrique, 1936- Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Minter, Myrna Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Moran, Lois Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Natzler, Gertrud Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Natzler, Otto Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Nesbitt, Lowell, 1933-1993 Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Notkin, Richard Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Ólafur Elíasson, 1967- Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Randall, Theodore, 1914-1985 Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Schulman, Norman, 1924- Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Sedestrom, Carol Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Serra, Richard, 1938- Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Shores, Kenneth, 1928- Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Simon, Sandy Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Slivka, Rose Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Staffel, Rudolf, 1911-2002 Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Takaezu, Toshiko Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Vavrek, Ken Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Winokur, Robert, 1933- Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Beaver College -- Faculty Corporate Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Graphic Sketch Club (Philadelphia, Pa.) Corporate Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Helen Drutt Gallery Corporate Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Nanette L. Laitman Documentation Project for Craft and Decorative Arts in America Corporate Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts (U.S.) Corporate Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Philadelphia Museum of Art Corporate Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Temple University. -- Students Corporate Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Tyler School of Art -- Students Corporate Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid

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