Louisville studio potter wins Best of Show at metro-east art festival

Louisville-based artist Fong Choo first thought to create his award-winning porcelain teapots covered in colors that run together more than 20 years ago as a way to play with the idea of the scale. The process to make them is all about balance.

Choo, 59, a studio potter and adjunct professor back home in Kentucky, calls the work tedious.

“The process that I utilize to glaze the work is a little bit radical; I take the low-fire glaze and I over-melt it in my kiln, over-fire it. So what happens is a lot of the glazes will run, and I’m looking for that running effect.”

What results is a melty mixture of colors. Choo said the reward is great but it’s not without consequences.

“I lose about 60 to 70 percent of the work,” he said. “The glazes will run, and they run all the way to the ground, and then they’ll glue themselves to the shelf.”

Choo said these pots that melt more than he would like have to be pried from the shelf and thrown away.

“It’s a real brutal process, but I like it. Call me a masochist but that’s the way it is. ... There’s no way to get it other than the process I’m working with, so I don’t mind the loss,” he said. “These pieces that survive become jewels. Each one is sort of one-of-a-kind.”

Examining one of the teapots in his collection, Choo estimates if he had programmed his kiln three, maybe five, minutes longer, “it would have been history.”

“That’s it,” he said.

Choo said he’s been creating this body of work since 1994, when he became intrigued by the scale. “You don’t plan these things,” he said. He described it as “stumbling upon” the idea.

Even after all that time, Choo said it’s still a guessing game with the creation of each teapot in terms of how long to keep them in the kiln.

The survivors of Choo’s process were awarded Best of Show over the weekend at Fairview Height’s Midwest Salute to the Arts Festival. He was among 100 artists from all over the country who traveled to the metro-east to show and sell their work.

Choo was returning to the event this year after a long hiatus. He estimates it’s been 15 years since he last made the trip. He won Best of Show that time, too.

Choo’s teapots aren’t meant to be functional — they can’t actually be used to make tea — but parts of their design serve specific purposes. The ridges at the bottom of some pots, for example, are there to catch the running glaze.

“I’m after fun, being dysfunctional, playfulness, color, all those positive attributes,” in the work, Choo said. And he gets inspiration for each piece from a variety of places.

While one piece might be modeled after pop culture — like Genie’s lamp in the Disney film “Aladdin” — another could be the product of nature — like the horses Choo sees back home in Kentucky.

Choo also gleans creativity from his birthplace.

“Being originally from Singapore ... it was surrounded by water, so it’s pretty obvious that I’m inspired by the aquatic world,” he said, the colors and running effects of his teapots’ glazes resembling water, for example.

Choo came up with the design for one teapot, called “Crystal Dragon,” after traveling around the U.S. He noticed various Chinatowns — from D.C. to Chicago — had similar entrances in Japanese Toro fashion.

“I saw that and I thought, ‘I wonder if I can turn that into a handle,’” he said.

When Choo isn’t making art himself, he’s teaching others.

He’s a traveling presenter, nationally and internationally, where he will run workshops.

Choo is also an adjunct professor at a small, four-year Catholic college in Louisville, Bellarmine University. He runs the ceramics department there.

To purchase a piece of Choo’s work, send him a message through his website fongchoo.com or email him directly at fongteapot@gmail.com. Find him on Facebook by searching for the page Fong Choo, Potter.

This story was originally published August 28, 2016 at 6:21 PM with the headline "Louisville studio potter wins Best of Show at metro-east art festival."