The clay would not cooperate.
At 19, Charles Snowden sat at a pottery wheel at MiraCosta College, trying to center a lump of clay that kept wobbling and collapsing to one side. Like many beginning ceramics students, he spent the class working through the same challenge again and again.
But Charles kept trying.
His instructor, Tony Richards, noticed his persistence and offered a suggestion: try a different method on the wheel. It was a small adjustment, but it helped Charles better understand how the clay moved and responded in his hands.
“From that experience with Tony Richards, I was hooked,” Charles recalled.
That moment would become one of many that helped Charles find his way toward a life in art.
Growing up in the San Diego area, Charles spent his childhood summers taking youth art courses at MiraCosta College, including Chinese watercolor and drawing. At 16, he returned for a life drawing course with instructor Dean Ramos. Although he was the youngest student in the room, he valued the chance to learn alongside more experienced artists.
After spending a year at a nearby state university studying English and literature, Charles found himself unsure of what should come next.
So he returned to MiraCosta College.
“I wasn’t sure what to do at that moment, but I knew MiraCosta College was the smart and economical option,” Charles said. “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 gave him the space to find out.
Faculty members, including Richards, Ramos, and Yoshimi Hayashi, became mentors who encouraged Charles to develop his ideas, strengthen his skills, and keep pushing beyond what felt familiar.
Over time, those relationships helped him see art not simply as something he loved but as a path he could continue to pursue.
After earning his degree at MiraCosta College, Charles transferred to Humboldt State in 2010, where his focus began shifting from functional ceramics toward sculpture.
Even as his work evolved, the question of how to build a life as an artist remained.
Charles stayed connected with his MiraCosta mentors, and when a ceramics lab technician position became available at the College, he returned.
The role gave him a place to work, experiment, and continue developing his own artistic practice.
By 2016, Charles was creating larger pieces, with Richards and Hayashi helping make room for his work in the kiln. Hayashi also encouraged him to look beyond ceramics and explore other materials and approaches to sculpture.
That encouragement helped lead Charles to graduate school at UCLA, where he continued expanding his practice alongside other artists.
“Tony and Yoshi and Dean are the reason I am where I am today,” Charles said. “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. He splits his time between Southern California and Spain, creating work that explores ideas through ceramics and sculpture.
For Charles, ceramics remain especially meaningful because of their long history as a medium used across cultures and communities.
“I want people to take a step closer when they see my work instead of turning away,” he said. “I want them to see the layers and the stories behind each piece.”
He also finds meaning in watching people interact with his work, and that connection is shaping what he hopes to build next.
Charles envisions creating a community space where artists can participate in residencies and students can learn, experiment, and develop their own creative practices.
In many ways, that vision reflects what MiraCosta College gave him: a place to explore, people who believed in his potential, and the freedom to keep asking questions until a path began to take shape.
Years after sitting at a pottery wheel and struggling to center a piece of clay, Charles is now thinking about how he can create that same kind of space for the next generation of artists, still finding their own way.
