Exhibition - Kathy Bustamante: Thinking with My Hands

Curated by Elia Haworth

Kathy Bustamante has nurtured creativity in children and adults through ceramics for forty-seven years. Yet, she has rarely taken time to exhibit her own work, which exudes boundless imagination and skill. Bustamante is particularly drawn to using triangle shapes and savors the process of discovery-she calls it thinking with her hands-as her witty characters take form, each expressing its own attitude.

After moving to Bolinas in 1974, she began teaching ceramics for seven years at Full Circle, Dogtown, Bolinas. Then, in 1984, Bustamante joined the award-winning Bolinas-Stinson School’s Art Shops Program staff and taught ceramics for 38 years to almost every student of two generations. By encouraging them to explore and express their own imaginations, she gave her students the lifetime tool of creative confidence. Bustamante also runs the vibrant educational and awareness-nurturing Bolinas Summer Camp, which she started thirty years ago.