Bohemian Rhapsody

Call it Etsy 2.0: right now, there’s a renaissance happening in Los Angeles, with a group of artists and retailers who raise unique, well made goods to an exalted state. You see it in stores like Iko Iko, A +R, and Mohawk General Store and among its practitioners are Beatrice Valenzuela, Samantha Grisdale, Beth Goodman, and Kathleen Whitaker. The latter has been on our radar for quite some time – admittedly, she’s a friend of a friend, but her name had been coming up so often in conversations with other designers and fashion-savvy peeps that we knew we had to get to know her better.

Whitaker is a jewelry maker and ceramicist who often works in two distinct aesthetics: some of her jewelry is stark, simple, and imbued with a math-like precision, while her ceramics echo themes and shapes in nature. The talented craftwoman has even launched a collection of heirloom baby bonets. We recently paid a visit to her urban-bohemian daydream of a home in Echo Park, and enjoyed a conversation about art, influence, and LA’s creative scene.

SSLA: What inspires you and your work?

Kathleen Whitaker: I draw from organic forms and shapes. Sometimes it’s not the inspiration but the process: I start working, and then it’s a matter of letting the material do what it wants. There’s such a duality at work in what I create: besides the more fluid, organic shapes, I also gravitate to simple, straight, basic forms – like long sticks and circles. Somehow, it all gels together for me. When I’m creating, I…I hope this doesn’t sound pejorative, but I try to stay away from things that are trend-driven…I strive to create “forever pieces.” And I find that my most successful pieces are the things that I make that I design and want to wear for myself.

So legend has it that you used to work in the financial sector at a big firm in New York. What was that like for you?

It was very button-down, corporate, Power Point presentations, just like what you’d imagine.

LET THERE BE LIGHT: A Whitaker-made light fixture inspired by a traditional Korean lamp (Image courtesy of Lisa Boosin for Style Section L.A.). 

What did you do for a creative outlet?

I really didn’t have one. Or need one, at least not at that time. It was the late ‘90s: I was very young, having fun, living my life and enjoying what it had to offer me at that time to the fullest. But that career was sort of a bookended period in my life: college was very creative, then I had that corporate job. After 9/11, I campaigned very hard to get transferred to LA. And I eventually found my way back to making things.

How did you make the transition out of that world?

 Working at home afforded me the time I needed to work on creating. And I studied at Otis, I took classes at Art Center and Barnsdall, and kept working and…putting myself into a creative community. And I always come back to ceramics. There’s something you don’t get with anything else. It’s the process of working with your hands. Ceramics is more tactile, more immediate. And more satisfying, in a way.