Luminosity : Cindy Chan | Community of Women: Sing Our Truth

Raku Fired Ceramic sculptures, approximately 14" tall

With brilliantly glowing colors and moving expression and gesture, my figurative sculptures radiate emotion, intent, and beauty. My inspiration for my 5-figure series, Community of Women, was my desire to illuminate compelling facets of what being a compassionate being means: We protect and offer refuge, sing our truths, celebrate our wisdom, dance our dreams, and thoughtfully act and speak. 

 Resolute Warrior embodies the strength and resilience necessary to create refuge for ourselves and our communities. Sing Our Truth is imbued with the shining bravery and vulnerability needed to claim our voices, gather together, and make our presence known, both as individuals and as a community. My sculptures transcend the clay they are made of to spark conversation and hope.  

 My work is Raku-fired, a Japanese technique, which leads to shimmering surfaces of intense colors, sometimes multi-layered, oftentimes metallic, always unpredictably eye-catching. Raku-firing is high risk as it is completed within one hour. My sculptures endure 1700+ degree heat in a kiln; then fire, smoke, and swirling ash in a closed container, and finally a cold water shower.  Each sculpture is transformed, alight with color and design, and one-of-a-kind. 

 While creating these sculptures in 2024-2025, I needed my inner strength to shine through a haze of sadness and fear. Sculpting these pieces helped me connect with my determination to survive, build community, and respond to the challenges of our present reality. 

BIO 

Cindy Chan is a Bay Area sculptor whose art is grounded in her compassion as she strives to create meaningful artworks during these challenging times. Chan discovered clay in her 40’s when she needed to open a new door. So she signed up for a parks and recreation class in ceramics after being diagnosed with a serious, chronic autoimmune disease and having to retire early from teaching writing in a university setting. She has been sculpting for more than 20 years and has loved every moment.  

Chan has exhibited at Luna Gallery in San Juan Bautista, Center for Creativity in Redwood City, Kitsune Community Art Studio and Gallery in Half Moon Bay, and Quarry Cove Art Gallery and Sanchez Art Center, both in Pacifica. She works out of and has taught sculpture classes at Clay Creations and The Clay Life. 

She is currently focused on sculpting her own work though occasionally offers workshops on sculpting facial features and hands, mask making, and glazing techniques. 

She is grateful to the renowned sculptor Susannah Israel, her mentor; Jane Schupay, her first sculpture instructor; Dorothy and Stephanie Turner, her beginning ceramics teachers; Na Omi Shintani, artist and curator of the exhibits, We Are Present and Refuge I, II, and III, celebrations of artists of Asian Heritage; and her life-long partner Anita Green. They each have believed in her work and vision, as well as offered concrete support and inspiration. 

Instagram: @Prpltang