Three renowned pottery artists from Oaxaca, Mexico spoke to about one hundred people at LBCC’s Benton Center in Corvallis during an April 18 celebration that kicked off a weekend of workshops in the center’s pottery studio.
After the reception, each artist, with the help of an interpreter, held a Powerpoint presentation about the path they took to become the pottery artist they are today. Each artist’s story was one of the many highlights of the evening, very heartwarming, humorous, and inspiring.
LBCC visual arts faculty member Renee McKitterick, who was in charge of the event, said about 40 people came to the workshops at the Benton Center. “These artists are having a pretty substantial tour of Oregon planned which really took quite a few partnerships to make it all happen.” The artists hosted workshops in the Benton Center’s ceramic studio April 19-20.
LBCC was one of three community colleges on the tour, which also stopped at Yamhill County’s East Creek Pottery.
“We love to host international artists and have done so many times over the years,” McKitterick said. “It is always such a rewarding experience for our students and our community. In order to make this happen we really rely on so much support from the college, from local artist groups, from our own faculty, and of course we have to find the funding.”
She mentioned the LBCC Peace Grant as an “enormous supporter” for the project. The grant, funded by the LBCC Foundation, provides seed money to projects that support community and civic engagement.
Each artist’s work from the workshops is pictured with their bios. They are in their unglazed stage. The main clay they used is called “Three Finger Jack.” They also used a little “MAC 10” and “B-MIX.”
Bios via LBCC. They have been lightly edited.
Honorio Cruz
Honorio Cruz was born in Santiago Suchilquitongo, Oaxaca, in 1987. He belongs to a family of farmers. From an early age he was involved in growing crops such as corn, beans and pumpkins. In his childhood, he recalls this time as his first approach to “la tierra” (soil/ground).
At age 15, given the harsh conditions, he had to stop studying and went on to work as a carpenter. By the chance of fate, Honorio heard the rumor that Maestro Alejandro Santiago, a prominent Oaxacan artist, was planning on starting a large ceramics workshop in Suchilquitongo to develop a colossal art project “2501 Migrantes” (2501 Migrants). By the nature and scale of the project, Santiago hired several young assistants to help him forge his vision.
This is where Cruz learned how to prepare clay, and little by little he was involved in all things concerned about ceramics: sculpture, supervising color, firing, etc. Once the project was completed, Santiago invited Honorio to remain collaborating in his art studio, where he stayed for over two years.
To this day, Maestro Cruz has participated in over 20 exhibitions, solo and collective. In 2015, he was invited by painter Ivonne Kennedy to co-found the “EL ATANOR” Ceramics Workshop. He said many teachers such as Santiago contributed to his artistic formation and directed him to create and establish a deep dialogue within the ceramic realm.
As a result of this, in 2018 Cruz opened his own ceramics work called “EL TECOLOTE” in Santiago Suchilquitongo Etla, the place that has witnessed his artistic growth. In 2021 he participated in a group exhibition at the original plaza in “Los Pinos Cultural Center,” Mexico City.
Cruz considers himself a self-taught artist, creating fantastical characters that try to emulate a hidden reality. In 2017 he had a show “In the back room” at the Eutectic Contemporary; he also participated in “Migratory Flow,” a group exhibition at the Mexican consulate in Portland, Oregon.
Inés Lara
Inés Lara was born in Oaxaca, Mexico. Her interest in the arts led her to study at the “Saúl Serrano” Art Center in Mexico City. She also took some workshops and was a diplomat at the San Agustín Oaxaca Center for the Arts.
In her creative process, she plays with different themes and techniques: sculpture, drawing, engraving and painting, in order to express herself through symbols, characters and animals.
In recent years she has been making sculptures with different materials such as ceramics and recycled materials. Her work shows that link between nature, life and death, using a means of expression that includes tradition with modernity.
She has presented her work in various exhibitions: Galerie Artes in Paris, France, Nahualli Gallery in New York City, and in the Potosino Institute of Fine Arts as well as many others. She has taught sculpture workshops in Los Angeles and in some communities in the city of Puebla.
Rufina Ruiz
Clay needs movement to take shape, and once it is ready – still in its place, while you look at it – it will travel with you as its energy enters into whoever admires it.
Clay screams and asks for movement and that is what the hands of Rufina Ruiz López do. Always immersed in a new project, Rufi, as she is called, turns the earth into beauty with alternative energies.
In her house of inspiration, the Ruiz López Workshop, she exploits her vocation as a teacher with 45 years of training – education will always be her priority. The workshop, a family collective, was created to promote the artists of Santa María Atzompa, where teachers, artists, creatives and innovators fuse traditional techniques with new contemporary methods and materials.
This article originally appeared in the May 2025 edition of The Commuter.