Today we’d like to introduce you to Akira Satake.
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
I moved to San Francisco in my early 20s from Japan, where I was working for a company as a photographer. After that, I moved to New York City.
I had been playing music quite seriously since middle school, but at the time I thought it was a good idea to focus more on my photography career. However, once I arrived in New York, things quickly picked up on the music side instead. I was performing a lot, producing my own solo CD, and eventually started a music production company, which grew quite significantly. Around the same time, I also started my own record company.
After more than 10 years of a very busy and hectic life, I became quite stressed. To help myself step away from that stress, I began taking pottery classes. That became my new passion.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
To make sure my pottery studio and gallery run smoothly, and that my employees are happy, while at the same time continuing to grow as an artist. It’s very important for me to spend enough time in the studio to experiment, take chances, and play like a child.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
For me, the act of creation is a collaboration between myself, the clay and the fire. Collaboration means finding what the clay wants to be and bringing out its beauty in the way that the beauty of our surroundings is created through natural forces. Undulations in sand that has been moved by the wind, rock formations caused by landslides, the crackle and patina in the wall of an old house; all these owe their special beauty to the random hand of Nature. The fire is the ultimate random part of the collaborative equation. I hope the fire will be my ally, but I know it will always transform the clay in ways I cannot anticipate.
How do you define success?
Keep making, changing and getting excited about my work.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.akirasatake.com
- Instagram: instagram.com @akirasatake
- Facebook: http://facebook.com Akira Satake
