{"id":181382,"date":"2026-02-17T12:12:10","date_gmt":"2026-02-17T12:12:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/181382\/"},"modified":"2026-02-17T12:12:10","modified_gmt":"2026-02-17T12:12:10","slug":"after-adventure-time-ako-castuera-focuses-on-ceramics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/181382\/","title":{"rendered":"After ‘Adventure Time,’ Ako Castuera focuses on ceramics"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Artist Ako Castuera is best known for her work on the award-winning<\/a> animated series \u201cAdventure Time<\/a>.\u201d As a writer and storyboard artist, she helped intrepid heroes Jake the Dog and Finn the Human become iconic toon characters.<\/p>\n

Though she brought flying rainbow unicorns and a platoon of plotting penguins to life on screen, there\u2019s more to Castuera\u2019s resume than hyper-imaginative animation.<\/p>\n

\"Ako <\/p>\n

Ceramist, writer and storyboard artist Ako Castuera in her studio.<\/p>\n

(Kayla Bartkowski \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n

The Echo Park-based creative is also a professional ceramicist<\/a> whose hand-built vessels and sculptures have been on display at the Japanese American National Museum of Art, Oxy Arts and the Oakland Museum of Art.<\/p>\n

\"\" <\/a> <\/p>\n

In this series, we highlight independent makers and artists, from glassblowers to fiber artists, who are creating original products in and around Los Angeles.<\/p>\n

While Castuera\u2019s studio is filled with its fair share of playful \u201cPee-wee\u2019s Playhouse\u201d-themed ceramic charms and anthropomorphic banana figurines, her craft is just as much devoted to highlighting Southern California\u2019s natural resources and Indigenous people, as well as her own Mexican-Japanese heritage.<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2018Whimsy\u2019 is a word that\u2019s been applied to my work a lot. This is not my word,\u201d she said during a recent tour of the Monrovia workspace she shares with her husband, artist Rob Sato<\/a>, and fellow ceramicist Rosie Brand<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"Sculptures \"Foot \"Sculptures <\/p>\n

Ako Castuera\u2019s work is anthropological and at times unusual, like her foot box sculptures. She also feels a special connection to her tools. (Kayla Bartkowski \/ Los Angeles Times) <\/p>\n

\u201cNot that whimsy is negative, but I do feel like it doesn\u2019t really get a handle on the substance of what I feel I\u2019m working with, as far as the depth of the clay, the depth of the experience, of the land.\u201d<\/p>\n

She sat perched on a stool at her workbench, using a smooth stone to grind soil clumps into fine dust as she talked. She collects the red earth during nature walks around the San Gabriel Mountains area \u2014 whether the riverbed of the Arroyo Seco, or the foothills of Claremont, her hometown.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is special dirt,\u201d she explained.<\/p>\n

To her, it has a presence, a life of its own and a cherished history. She uses it to make anything from trinket boxes to ornate geometric vases to statuettes of quizzical creatures.<\/p>\n

Some of her most recent creations stand on a nearby wooden shelf. They\u2019re ceramic depictions of Pacific tree frogs and great herons, both denizens of the L.A. River. The waterway has long been a source of inspiration for Castuera.<\/p>\n

\"Small <\/p>\n

Ako Castuera\u2019s work ranges from massive pieces to the miniature, like these figurines.<\/p>\n

(Kayla Bartkowski \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n

\u201cI love the L.A. River,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s my neighbor. It\u2019s my teacher. It\u2019s a place where I walk and bike.\u201d<\/p>\n

She regards the river as a muse and wants to inspire Angelenos of all ages to appreciate it. To that end, she teaches youth workshops at the riverside arts hubs Clockshop<\/a> and Sooki Studio<\/a>. What\u2019s more, the river was a \u201cmain character\u201d on \u201cCity of Ghosts<\/a>,\u201d the L.A.-celebrating, Emmy-winning Netflix animated series she directed. She\u2019s even been known to use some of its water to transform soil into moldable clay.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe more people who are brought into a sense of kinship with the river, the better,\u201d she said. \u201cBecause then, they really feel like \u2018The river takes care of me; I want to take care of the river.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Castuera\u2019s work has an anthropological bent, as well as an ecological one. For example, her research into Southern California\u2019s Kumeyaay<\/a> and Cahuilla<\/a> Indigenous tribes inspired a series of large jars patterned after ollas<\/a>, traditional pots used for water and seed storage. She plans to incorporate these jars into an immersive installation that will be on view at the Candlewood Arts Festival <\/a>in Borrego Springs in March and April. And last fall, she hosted a community event with Los Angeles Nomadic Division<\/a> in which she discussed how soil played a vital role in the societies of both the Gabrielino-Tongva<\/a> tribes of L.A. and the Ryukyuan people of her mother\u2019s native Okinawa<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Finding the sweet spot where cultures combine is a constant source of motivation for Castuera. She\u2019s created her own twist on shisa<\/a>, lion-dog statues that are common sights all around Okinawa. And she\u2019s currently working on a collection of small sculptures honoring her patrilineal ties to Puebla, Mexico. Her \u201ctaco babies\u201d were inspired by one of the region\u2019s best-known dishes, tacos \u00e1rabes, which combine flavors from Mexico and the Middle East.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was thinking about the beauty of being in a living mix and what that would look like personified,\u201d she said of the wee figures wrapped in colorful tortilla-like blankets.<\/p>\n

\"Hands <\/p>\n

Ako Castuera makes ceramics for the love of the process, not the final product.<\/p>\n

(Kayla Bartkowski \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n

Some of Castuera\u2019s work makes it into gallery shows and some she sells. But just as often, she smashes it and takes the soil back to where she originally found it. It\u2019s a habit of creating and destroying that she formed as a student at Claremont High School, where she studied the craft for two semesters, yet fired zero pieces.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think I could\u2019ve articulated this at 15, but it\u2019s about the process of building, not the process of creating a product. It\u2019s about working with the material \u2014 just making the space and the time for that practice,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe excitement and the magic is really about the discovery of the unexpected. It\u2019s so engrossing and it really just gets me engaged with life.\u201d<\/p>\n