Journeys›Photograph

Saturday Appreciating Art at Home in San Francisco

·Walnut Creek, California·#bay area#still life#home#ceramics#art-collection
A ceramic plate with a stylized black and white animal head with green eyes, resting on a wooden surface.

Never made it past the living room today, which was the point. San Francisco is two weeks out from SFMOMA's reopening — the Snøhetta expansion is finished, the new façade is up next to Yerba Buena Gardens, and 33,000 works go back on view, Warhol and Kahlo among them. That trip can wait for a day with crowds in it. This Saturday was a museum of one room: taking the studio ceramics down one at a time and setting them on the teak table.

The bull plate got the longest look — heavy earthenware, the head brushed on in black and white with a single green eye, somewhere between Picasso and a barnyard. Then a porcelain cup small enough to close a hand around, a woman drawn clear around it in hairline black with one red dot on her cheek. The slab-built black pot is heavier than it looks, and a stripe of cobalt runs across its ribbed front like a loaded brush dragged once and left alone.

Nine pieces out by the end of the afternoon, and the bull plate still hasn't gone back to the shelf.

A ceramic mug with an abstract person design, featuring dark hair, a red nose, and body outlines, on a wooden surface.A black and colorful textured ceramic vase sits on a wooden table with plant shadows on a wall and green foliage outside.A vibrant ceramic bowl with orange, yellow, and black abstract designs rests on a wooden table.A tall, rustic ceramic vase with brown and green glaze sits on a wooden table, with plant shadows on a white wall.A circular textured ceramic sculpture with brown and cream glaze sits on a wooden table.A dark, textured ceramic pot with bands of blue and white glaze rests on a wooden table.A large, dark textured ceramic sculpture with a prominent light yellow band sits on a wooden table.A round, grey and black abstract ceramic plate with vertical and horizontal strokes rests on a wooden table.

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