If you live in Nevada County and have anything to do with ceramic arts, have attended Sierra College or Nevada Union (where I first encountered him as a teen), you know Dick Hotchkiss. He's been here since the 70's. The land where he has lived since then was first inhabited by his parents in 1947 who "chopped down the trees to build this house and garden." Jessica Agnew, who's interview we posted recently, currently lives here as an apprentice of sorts. They are both iconic figures in the Sierra Foothills, one already established, one in the making.

We talked a lot about being an artist as a livelihood while we visited his property and how this particular piece of land and the structures on it all have their roots in artistic endeavoring. The salvaged wood structures, made from defunct Gold Rush mining flumes,  were part of an artist residency that was dreamed up in 1976 called the Winter Term. Fifteen students came from college in Wisconsin to learn Primitive Pottery. Some of them, Kirk Mangus, Annie Zimmerman, Chris Smith, went on to be successful potters. The studio where Dick still works was built in 1975 and has posters from that time on the wall exactly as they were placed 40 years ago, amongst a hefty population of abandoned pieces.