I used to stop on my daily walks and visit Otto at his home. He was such a friendly, talkative soul during the time I lived in the East End of Ojai. Would be fun to share some Otto memories or stories if anyone has them. Here is the story in the Star. http://www.venturacountystar.com/news/2009/jul/17/otto-heino-ojai-artist-known-for-glaze-dies-at/
“It’s the end of an era, really. Otto was truly one of the last great American craftsmen to live in our community,” said Donna Granata, founder of Focus on the Masters, a nonprofit educational organization that documents the lives and works of area artists.
“He had a work ethic unmatched by anyone I know. This was a man who once produced a glaze to match a car,” Granata said of Heino, who was still using a pottery wheel and firing his own kilns into his 90s. “All of his success, literally, he created with his two hands.”
New Info** Otto’s La Times Obituary http://www.latimes.com/news/obituaries/la-me-otto-heino21-2009jul21,0,1590279.story
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Rest in peace, Otto Heino.
I frequently walk by his house, and I was just telling a walking companion last week that we really should pop in when the studio is open to meet the legendary artist, knowing his time on earth was growing shorter.
Hopefully they will keep the studio open, as they have done with Beatrice Wood’s studio, so we can share the artistry in its native habitat.
This story about him is fascinating, and one I’ve heard with a few different variations:
The freedom to mold,the freedom to create,the clay became resilient in your hands to reach its’ full potential of beauty. Some artists give all. Your memory will never drift away. May you find peace.
I don’t know how it works but in my mind the souls of Beatrice Wood and Viveka and Otto Heino are eternally connected. If they come back for another lifetime, I’m sure they will meet again, here on the physical plane.
In my mind’s eye I can still see Beato laughing and laughing… When I first met her in 1957, she was living in the house on McAndrew that Viveka and Otto later purchased when they wanted to move back to California from New Hampshire.
Years earlier, Beatrice had willed her house to the Happy Valley Foundation. She loved this house (having designed it–a story in itself) and had nurtured the cactus garden from tiny plants to giant beings…we all imagined Beato would live there forever. But in her late 80′s, with well-meaning friends telling her she was too old to leave her beloved house, she agreed to move to a new house on the Happy Valley land in the Upper Ojai Valley.
Otto and Viveka were destined to move to Beato’s house. After she put the house on the market the sale fell through three times… Then (to her great relief) she got a call from Viveka asking if the house was for sale. Otto and Viveka had been to Ojai several times some years before, to “coach” Beato. She considered them her greatest teachers.
Since they were also potters, having them move into Beato’s house was a match made in heaven. She knew they loved her plants and the goldfish in the pond. It made letting go of her “child” infinitely easier, knowing they would love and care for her place as much as she did.
I too hope Otto’s studio will remain open and that his house on McAndrew, with so much beautiful, inspiring history, will somehow be preserved…
Namaste
Whoops! I exaggerated Beato’s age when she sold her McAndrew house to Otto and Viveka Heino. (I looked up the Chronology pages in her Autobiography. Looks like Otto and Viveka moved into her house sometime in 1973 or ealy 1974, when Beato was 81)
What a soul!…he was a heavy metal songwriter with his powerful eye and hands. And his character and devil-may-care attitude…his yellow ochre screamed I AM HERE.
But a generous soul…he donated more than a dozen pieces to the Ojai Rotary a couple years back for a fund-raiser, and I saw his pots at many, many more charity auctions in the Valley.
He threw out powerful pronouncements with the same strength he threw 90 pounds of clay. I heard him say that he turned down $1 billion for his yellow “recipe!”
Let’s hope he’s resting after all that work, but there’s a good chance he’s showing the angels how to fly better right now!
God Bless You, Otto.
I am so sorry to hear of Otto’s passing. I took my son to see Otto on Friday, May 22 – to get the inside scoop for a high school ceramics project. Otto dropped what he was doing and spent about an hour with my son, explaining everything you could think of (but not the yellow glaze!). When it was time to go, a woman there (Otto’s niece, I think) had Otto pose with my son and took a couple photos. I imagine he will always remember that Friday afternoon with Otto.
That is so wonderful that your son had this experience… and I’m sure Otto enjoyed the visit too. You might want to request a copy of the photos of Otto posing with your son…or maybe they already gave them to you…these are especially precious, considering the timing…
i am sadened to hear of Otto’s passing. I met him in ’98 when i went to Ojai for a workshop near the Happy Valley School. We had taken the afternoon to visit his gallery & studio, once the home/studio of Beatrice Wood. He made lots of jokes & proudly showed us his kiln room (great kiln gods) & garden. He had a Border Collie that was very friendly. The scent of Ojai air. luv that milky matte glaze. I bought 2 tea cups that i will happily drink from in the next few days. I hope Vivika & Beato r spinning circles around Otto & welcoming him back into their domain.
Lovely images
I hope so too!
Above I posted the direct link to the LA Times obituary for Otto. Quite a life he had! (sorry, I need a tutorial in how to the other kinds of links)
Thank you, DK, for adding the link to the LA Times obituary for Otto. Otherwise I might have missed it.
It NEVER ceases to amaze me the things one learns about someone in their obituary!
Ah, Otto,
What a dear soul, Only spent three visits with him; sitting out in front of his studio.
My dad also flew over Germany in WW2,but he’s been gone for 30 years. So my times with Otto were like a surrogate dad as I imagined how he would be as a 90 year old. Otto filling a void in my heart with out even knowing it, like he’s done for so many I’m sure.
Enjoy heaven Sir!
Mark Benkert / Ojai sculptor
Dear family and friends of Otto Heino,
I share with you my deepest condolences. I just learned of dear Otto’s death. May he rest in peace and surely be greeted by Vivika and Beato.
I had known them each just a little bit on a personal level, as I was an ACS (American Ceramics Society)member from the 1980′s on (until I became a performing perucssionist), in this San Fernando Valley, and the memories I hold are delightful.
A couple decades ago when I went to Ojai and visited with Otto at his studio, he showed me the large wheel-thrown piece that had just won an international award –first place, in France. He told me why he won first place and that comment, and that way of being has always stayed with me, permeated me, and been important to me, and I believe I even used it in a poem that I wrote, and surely have shared. “I won the first place award because it is an HONEST POT”, Otto said to me while holding up the pot to show to me.
I bought a smaller, more affordable pot for myself, which still sits close to me, as I treasure it and the precious time that Otto Heino spent talking to me. Otto was a blesSing, and I hold him, and Vivika, and Beato in my heart. (I regret that I didn’t go to India when Beato invited me when I visited her in her Ojai studio.)
Another friend, Judy G., who knew the couple, of blessed memory, well, and now lives near the sister, would like to share photos with the sister, Olga. Please let me know how to reach Olga.
With great admiration, and sympathy.
Joy Krauthammer
Northridge, CA
Thanks for sharing Joy
I’m sorry to say I don’t know myself how to reach Olga. Wonder if someone will come forward who does? Best, DK