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Tucked away behind a burial ground for abandoned trucks is a tiny pottery studio. Surrounded by scraps of metal and spare tires, the creative haven itself is quaint — shelves of half-finished vases surround the entrance as a recording of bird chirps floats throughout the room.
Japanese-porcelain potter Jim Srubek sat beside his work sink, a clay-stained mess of wooden tools to his left, a small porcelain cup of tea on a table to his right.
“I offer my instruction for free because it’s part of my responsibility to pass this on,” Srubek said.
Srubek is a world-renowned potter who specializes in Japanese Arita porcelain pottery. Arita pottery is unique in that, unlike Western pottery, the pottery wheel spins clockwise and is molded from the inside of the bowl, as opposed to the outside.
Srubek’s career as a potter began in 1969 when he was working on his Ph.D. in art education at Penn State. After taking a few ceramics courses, Srubek attended an Arita pottery course, under the direction of National Living Treasure of Japan Inoue Manji Sensei. Srubek said he was immediately attached to the art form.
“All of the other things I was doing was, in a way, forcing myself to be loose and spontaneous, and that’s not really my nature,” he said. “But when I was confronted with this method, it required discipline, it required being precise, it required doing it over and over and over again and always trying to work towards making it better, making it ideal, and that fit towards my personality.”
Srubek said his work stood out to the ceramics sensei, who later tapped his shoulder and told him he could study for free under his direction in Japan. For a year, he learned the ins and outs of Arita pottery alongside six other apprentices, molding and reworking pieces for nine hours a day, seven days a week.
After a year of apprenticeship in 1979, Srubek went on to teach pottery courses at UNM from 1980 until he retired in 2001.
Srubek has since moved his work to a small pottery studio outside Jackson Equipment Company near Second Street and Osuna Road, shared with potter and former student Shelly Jackson. Srubek has fully adapted to the Japanese approach to pottery; he hand-carved every tool his students use from Sitka spruce wood purchased from the acclaimed acoustic-guitar company Pimentel and Sons. Srubek said he spent the last three years teaching students who are willing to learn the difficult art form before finally looking for an apprentice this year.
“There’s a saying that one national living treasure once said: ‘To surpass your master is to pay the debt you owe him,’” he said. “If I teach something to a student and carry this tradition along, it repays what my teacher gave to me.”
Jackson said her teacher’s recent attempt to find an apprentice is a noble one.
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“It’s being socially conscious,” Jackson said. “Somebody socially handed you something, and you are being socially conscious to hand it to somebody else.”
Jackson began studying under Srubek in 1992, after practicing Western pottery for years. Since then, Jackson said Srubek’s Arita method has changed her outlook on the art form. Jackson said that because the Arita method is so technique-driven, she sees herself perfecting her work through her old age.
“When I wasn’t using the method well as I was getting older, I was starting to worry about being able to do this,” she said. “But once I started using the method more correctly, it kind of overcame some of the things I was losing because of aging, because it’s some heavy, hard work. When I was using the method correctly, I could see that I could go into old age doing this.”
Srubek said that most students have a therapeutic moment while taking his course.
“When working with clay, you have to get it centered,” Srubek said. “Centering involves certain kinds of movement, but in centering it, you’re also centering yourself.”
Student and ceramics teacher Heidi Meissner said her life changed after taking Srubek’s course.
“He gives this lecture, he shows the slides of his trip to Japan and what it’s all about, and I was just enthralled,” Meissner said. “I just knew that’s what I wanted to do.”
Meissner said she changed her major from engineering to ceramics after taking Srubek’s class. She spent the next 10 years, from 1990 to 2000, taking courses with Srubek. Meissner currently teachers a ceramics class in Denver, teaching students from kindergarten to adults, and she drives down to Albuquerque at least once a month to take a lesson from Srubek. She calls her teacher “a gold mine of information.”
Meissner said her instructor’s passion for teaching pottery is what keeps her making the long trek back to Albuquerque.
“He doesn’t tell people what to do; he doesn’t force people,” she said. “He’s very unlike a Japanese teacher in that respect. A Japanese teacher would be folding their arms, tapping their feet and watching you work for nine hours every day, six days a week.
He (Srubek) wants you to be there, and he wants you to love it.”
