About Studio Tanah

"Tanah" means land, earth, or soil in Indonesian. If you add the adjective "tanah liat", this word represents clay.

When choosing a name for my ceramics studio, I needed something that very much represented me. At my core, I am a jack-of-all-trades, however those trades are engrossed in the involvement of tanah: I am a ceramicist, a caretaker to my own regenerative permaculture botanical garden, and a farm-to-table chef. It is natural that I chose the name Studio Tanah.

Upbringings

When I was 6 years old, I grew up in a nice neighborhood in Gandaria, Jakarta, Jakarta is a massive city but I was lucky enough to grow up in a quiet street where I was able to roam around the neighborhood safely in bikes and visit all my neighbors on a daily basis. One of my neighbors was an oil painter and I called her Aunty Wulan.

Aunty Wulan was an extraordinary painter, who lived in a large 2-story house which was covered from top to bottom in her oil paintings. She took a liking to me - bubbly personality and all - and invited me to paint with her every day after school in her home studio. This is when I started to associate myself with art and developed a longing for the smell of turpentine and oil paint.

Younger self

I moved to the United States when I was fifteen years young. I was torn away from my relationship with Aunty Wulan but it did not deter me from continuing to practice art at my new American school. I continued to oil paint for a couple years until my teacher suggested that I try my hand in clay, so I took ceramics the next year.

When I first took ceramics, it was almost as if I had found my calling in Art. I am grateful for the years I spent oil painting but I didn't realize how impatient I am with the process of waiting around for something to dry before I can continue any further. Furthermore, I was able to start creating things I could use in my day-to-day. As a teenager, my first large piece was a 20lb smoking pipe in the shape of Dumbo, the elephant. I was ecstatic. I submitted this as a sculpture piece for AP Art and received a high score. At this moment, I realized that functional art was my calling.

Adulthood

I got accepted to University of Richmond in 2009 and immediately decided that I would minor in art. I didn't have much of a choice for a major - I had to do my bachelors of science in biology, because I had promised my father my entire life that I would become a doctor for him. Spoiler, despite graduation with that degree, I did not become a doctor.

In college I continued to focus on sculpture whether with ceramics or plaster. I built larger and larger pieces until one day I was building a piece that was 4 feet tall, 2 feet wide, and 6 feet long. It was an abstract piece made of plaster of a bodacious woman lying on her side. I felt confident that I can continue to do this for the rest of my life.

Reality kicked in after graduation, when I was hit with real life choices on how to pay my bills. I was studying for the MCATs for medical school but going back to school again didn't feel right for me. My boyfriend had just graduated with a Computer Science degree and was able to get a high-paying remote job programming - so I decided to delve deep into that career and made it my whole personality for years. Art took a backseat as I grew into my career.

Present day

In 2022, I decided the tech industry had burned me out and I needed to quit my job. Fortunately we were in a place in life where we were able to do that. I took a few months off to reflect while I thought about my next steps in life. My husband suggested I follow my dreams and become a professional potter. So here we are, building my dream tiny studio on the lanai of our Kaua'i homestead.

I started out obsessing over YouTube videos and practicing on my new wheel. I then realized that in order to step up my skills I need serious training. I took the following training before I was able to find my own voice in ceramics:

4 day intensive training on the art of layering colored clay and nerikomi art with Dean McRaine from Lightwave Pottery in Kaua'i, Hawai'i
2 weeks masterclass in large coil built vessels with Onggi master Kwak Kyung Tae in Icheon, South Korea
3 day intensive training on the art of vessels and traditional Korean moon jars with master potter Moon Do Bang as a visiting artist from Seoul, South Korea, in Pasadena, California

I still hope to learn from a number of teachers including Akira Satake in Asheville, North Carolina, on the art of kurinuki.

I am in awe of the chaos of nature and it is what inspires my art. It is rugged, unpredictable, but yet, refined. My art is created in the same way my botanical garden was created: with the idea that true balance is achieved from embracing chaos and diversity, rather than fighting against unpredictable natural systems.