The clay would not cooperate.
Charles Snowden was nineteen, hunched over a throwing wheel at MiraCosta College, where he had already taken many art classes as a kid. Like many of his peers that day, he spent the entire class period trying to center a lump that kept wobbling and slumping sideways. For early ceramics students, it was a challenge as old as time.
But Charles never gave up. He stayed, class after class, and worked at the problem.
And the instructor, Tony Richards, took notice. What Tony saw was not a beginner in over his head. He saw a young man who had been making art since childhood, who had the patience to sit with something difficult, and who was one small adjustment away from something clicking.
So Tony walked over. “Why not try a different method on the wheel,” he suggested to Charles. It was a small note, but one that would let him work through the mistakes faster and feel what the clay was doing. It wasn’t a solution but a way through and it gave Charles the knowledge that lives in the hands of artists and is hard to translate into words.
“From that experience with Tony Richards, I was hooked,” Charles recalled.
Growing up in the San Diego area, Charles spent his childhood summers in MiraCosta College's youth art courses, painting Chinese watercolor and learning to draw. At sixteen, he came back for a life drawing course with Dean Ramos. And even though he was the youngest student in the room, he relished being around seasoned artists.
After a year at a nearby state university studying English and literature, he came back once more.
Charles shared, “I wasn’t sure what to do at that moment, but I knew MiraCosta College was the smart and economical option. I knew the teaching was really strong and I felt drawn to a career in the arts, even if I wasn’t sure if that was possible.”
MiraCosta College was the place where Charles could find out without betting everything on the answer.
Back at MiraCosta College, he flourished. Tony Richards, Dean Ramos, Yoshimi Hayashi, and so many more professors went from being his classroom teachers to his mentors and friends. They saw his potential and kept pushing him to go further and further. And after getting his degree at MiraCosta College, he did just that.
Charles transferred to Humboldt State in 2010 and shifted from throwing pots to creating sculpture. He was good, really good. But the difficulty of making art a full-time career was still a daunting challenge for anyone in the creative field.
That’s when Charles reached back out to his mentors at MiraCosta College. Serendipitously, the ceramics lab technician role had just opened up and Charles jumped at the opportunity.
The studio also became the place where he grew more ambitious. By 2016, Charles was building bigger pieces, and Tony and Yoshi made room in the kiln whenever he needed it. Yoshi kept pushing him further, urging him to branch beyond ceramics altogether and explore other mediums. And that mentorship helped propel Charles into graduate school where he was able to explore new areas alongside other artists at UCLA.
“Tony and Yoshi and Dean are the reason I am where I am today,” Charles explained. “Each helped me grow as an artist and understand how to translate my ideas into three dimensional objects. They encouraged me to pursue my questions - whatever they might be - rather than seeking definitive answers.”
Today, Charles is a ceramic sculptor represented by the Los Angeles gallery Nazarian Curcio, splitting his time between Southern California and Spain. His work is conceptual and esoteric, and he loves working in ceramics because, as he points out, it is historically a medium of the people.
Charles shared, “I want people to take a step closer when they see my work instead of turning away. I want them to see the layers and the stories behind each piece.”
He is also happiest, he admits, when he is watching people interact with his work. And when he thinks about the future, he wants to harness that feeling to bring more people in through education and experience. Charles envisions a life where he has a community space where artists can come for residency and students can come to learn.
In a way, it’s the future Tony had seen for Charles all along. And now it’s time for Charles to share his art and his expertise with the next generations of students who are sitting, and struggling, at a wheel with endless potential.