Meet Colter Mas Lucas | Sculptor & Ceramic Artist

We had the good fortune of connecting with Colter Mas Lucas and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Colter Mas, putting aside the decision to work for yourself, what other decisions were critical to your success?
For me and many other artists, the most important decision was to pursue art. I’ve made that choice multiple times, as it’s an easy decision to make, but it is a hard option to stick to. Telling your parents or partner that you want to make money selling art rarely gets the reaction you want, money is very unpredictable, and finding consistent inspiration makes it nearly impossible. It’s almost too easy to give up on making art. I have done it before, but eventually, I made the decision to pursue art again, and I’ll get a little further and make myself a little prouder. Those periods of making art are usually punctuated with breaks where I have short-term contract jobs; where my brain gets a break, but I’m not lacking in problems to solve and get to use plenty of tools to create something new. Splitting my effort like this is simply the way I try and try again, and keep from getting stuck in a rut when something goes wrong. The most important part is to never give up forever and always come back for another round.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
I am a Japanese-American sculptor, specializing in design through folded paper and origami, and ceramic artist, experimenting with semi-traditional Japanese pottery. I tend to walk the line between art and design more than my peers, where my art doesn’t ever tell a direct story. Instead, I think it gives experiences, and through the use of light, texture, and sheer size, I was able to set myself apart from my peers. I experiment heavily with industrial materials, like fiberglass, concrete, and tar roofing paper. Combining that with the structural stability I found in origami, I found that I could make remarkably strong tactile sculptures that are able to make a real presence in a room.

That realization kinda snowballed, when I got challenged by a college peer to make each work bigger than the last, ending with my capstone piece. Before graduating I was granted permission to make a permanent installation on campus, and deciding to go big or go home, I cast a ¾ ton concrete monument in the CSUN sculpture garden. I am incredibly proud of that one, as it took months to make, and had serious testing and failures, but resulted in the biggest, most successful work of mine, which I know will outlive me if undisturbed.

I have a lot of goals in my profession as an artist I have yet to achieve. I’m only just getting started out of college and have a ways to go, but knowing what I want to do is always one of my biggest challenges. I probably

After college, I had to step away from art, just because I was pushing so hard that I needed a break. For the better part of a year now, I’ve been exploring opportunities across different horizons. I started, and continue to sell pottery at craft fairs and art markets around LA. For a time I was assistant to the wonderful potter Linda Hisao. I’ve done quite a bit of work as a fabricator and contractor, taking jobs from simple home repairs to creating twin-ride experiences for the Santa Monica Art Museum. Through this time, I’ve been trying to not only earn money and job experience, but figure out what is it I really want to pursue. The one goal I haven’t given a real shot at is selling my sculptural artworks. It’s probably the least, stable and most difficult path in front of me, but at the same time, sculpture is the fulfilling craft I’ve picked up.

While I have achieved no real professional success, I have succeeded in finding something I’d happily do for the rest of my life. That fact alone, I’m proud of, and in the next year or so, I hope to find a place for my sculpture where I can make a profession of it, or work in some way that allows me to have the spare time and money to fulfill my little artist soul.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
When I’m in charge of trip planning, I lean toward what I hunger for. Things that feed my brain or things that feed my soul. It’s easy to spend days at museums. Whether it’s LACMA and the Broad, or the Natural History Museum and The Science Center, I can lose myself exploring. Along the same vein, I love hiking. Not very hardcore, but I think some of my favorite So Cal hikes have been San Jacinto Mountain and the tram ride, The Bridge to Nowhere, and camping along the lakes up Bishop’s Pass.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
I think I’d like to shout out the friends and faculty I met attending Cal State Northridge, especially my peers in the sculpture department and our professor Christian Tedeschi. Under his guidance, I was shoulder-to-shoulder with some truly wonderful minds and dedicated workers. Being there and having people to work closely with gave me so much drive and understanding that I would be a lesser person without the experience. I gained a truer understanding of art, getting to be been submerged in it.

Working with Christian was also profoundly influential. He treated me as if I were a peer. His advice and his seeking of advice from me finally convinced me to believe in my abilities. I was no longer just a student but a capable artist in my own right.

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