The meandering drive on picturesque backroads to Jane Rekedal’s
studio in rural Aromas is like a massage for the cluttered psyche.
Perched atop a grassy hill slope without Internet or cable TV, it’s
easy to see how this 1969 nook of creativity isolated in a
sanctuary of trees, earth and sky buffers peace and inspiration
from worldly interruptions.
The meandering drive on picturesque backroads to Jane Rekedal’s studio in rural Aromas is like a massage for the cluttered psyche.
Perched atop a grassy hill slope without Internet or cable TV, it’s easy to see how this 1969 nook of creativity isolated in a sanctuary of trees, earth and sky buffers peace and inspiration from worldly interruptions.
“I feel like I’m sitting on a treasure heap up here,” mused Rekedal as she shuffled back and forth past an open window framing a sunny rectangle of rolling scenery.
On a lazy Tuesday afternoon the Gavilan College ceramics teacher of 31 years performed methodical, careful movements inside her studio at 1560 Cannon Road. Her pottery tools laid arranged on wooden slabs surrounding a German-style throwing wheel called a Bauhaus, which she powered with an old washing machine motor.
“There’s a real satisfaction in working with ones hands,” noted Rekedal, slipping cylindrical tubes of moist clay between thumb and forefinger to form individual handles for oil and vinegar cruets. “Society doesn’t give people an opportunity so much. It’s very tangible. Having a finished product is satisfying in a way that lot of people don’t have anymore in their work or their lives.”
Spring is in full bloom, and with that unfolds a vibrant spectrum of community happenings within our region’s buzzing artistic populace. For locals it’s a refreshing outlet to get immersed in.
Between teaching classes at Gavilan College and the Community Center in Morgan Hill, creating her own masterpieces, participating in gallery events between Gilroy, Aromas and Hollister and showing her works in 28 Gilroy Garlic Festivals, Rekedal is a permanent fixture in a tight-knit artistic hamlet.
She’ll be opening her unique working space to visitors from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. April 16, 17, 23, 24 and May 7; an occasion occurring twice a year in the spring and in November that is well worth the leisurely 15 minute drive from Gilroy. Lush landscapes of green hills folding into themselves en route is something out of a painting – a simple reminder of the pastoral sublimity specific to the Santa Clara and San Benito communities hugging Highway 101. The final destination is a cozy wooden hideaway with glass paneled windows and ceiling-high brick kiln, calling to mind the artist communes rooted in the intimate, cliffy alcoves of Big Sur.
“This place has magic,” agreed Rekedal of the space, which she has been renting since 1975.
Her open house will be in conjunction with the San Benito County Open Studios Art Tour taking place from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. this Saturday and Sunday. The exhibition maps out a route for visitors to tour 24 different artists between Hollister, Aromas and San Juan Bautista, inviting participants to discover tucked away locus’s off the beaten path.
“The idea of going to see the artwork in the artist’s studio is a great thing,” said Jennifer Laine, executive director of the San Benito County Arts Council. “It’s a great way to see parts of San Benito County, see inside people’s homes and have chance to talk directly with artists themselves.”
Redekal attested to the glimmering cache of artists dotting Aromas and San Juan hills, but observed “it’s so rural, so it’s natural for (the artistic community) to be hidden. It’s interesting to see how many and what a variety. It’s a very rich community.”
Her own pieces lining various shelves, ledges, crannies and windowsills animate Redekal’s studio with life. Eclectic creations such as raised cake plates, rotund teapots with spouts sculpted into horse heads, garlic keepers, deep bowls with undulatory anatomies and thick mugs coated in shimmering glazes boast aesthetic and textural appeal.
The canons of locale penchants manifest in an array of her works, standouts including a whimsical crop of garlic keepers for the Gilroyans, deep-bellied acorn jars with matching lids in a live oak tribute to Morgan Hill and a family of bowls fashioned after otters in a nod to Monterey Bay’s iconic marine life.
Picking up a dish sculpted to resemble the body of a bird, she remarked upon the limitless possibility and visceral draw afforded by her chosen medium. Just touching and moving clay, she said, is “magical.”
Rekedal moved to California in 1975 and jokes her initial tendency would have been to be a recluse “because I moved out to this beautiful place out in the country.”
Fortunately for the generations of students who learned to throw clay during the three decades she’s spent instructing, Rekedal’s husband – who also makes pottery – “decided we have to have real money.”
Rekedal started working at Gavilan in 1979 and is still going strong.
“I found working at the college was so wonderfully enriching,” she said. “It’s a great environment.”
Donna Lester, 66, thinks so too. She’s been taking classes at Gavilan from Rekedal for almost seven years and hopes to live well into her 90s – just so she can keep at it.
“The most creative thing I ever did was make a skirt in home economics,” she laughed. “I had never done art classes before, but Jane was so easy-going and encouraging.”
Lester said she’ll show up to the three-hour class and stay as late as 5 p.m.
Rekedal impressed on the importance of keeping youth exposed to art, agreeing it’s tougher nowadays but crucial to advocate.
In the same way children who aren’t exposed to music when they’re younger become “inhibited” about being vocal as they get older, she said children not exposed to art will be less interested in taking those kinds of classes in college.
“Like I said, I could have been a recluse, but no way now. The energy of being around young people of course is wonderful. I feel really restored. I don’t worry about the next generation.”
As she went back to work on the oil and vinegar cruets, Rekedal highlighted the benefits of being turned on to new modes of expression, getting connected with other people in the community and relishing art as a fuel for the inner self.
“It’s really important, with our global society and all the instances we see in the news, art is one of the bridges we can have that’s positive. We need to feed our souls more and more of that,” she said. “The tangible arts, fine arts, visual arts, that again goes back to satisfying something inside that I don’t know if you can get it by looking at stuff – you have to experience.”
