Meet Grace Huang | Cardiologist & Potter

We had the good fortune of connecting with Grace Huang and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Grace, how has your perspective on work-life balance evolved over time?
As a full time interventional cardiologist, wife, and mother of two, being a ceramic artist provides me the balance I need to maintain my sanity. I enjoy being in the studio, where I feel grounded, using my bare hands to create vessels from clay, without any burden of expectation or result.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
My path of becoming an interventional cardiologist was not an easy one. I chose this subspecialty because I knew I was good with my hands, and I enjoyed the thrill of being able to save a life of another human being. Call it instant gratification. Little did I realize how much time, training, and sacrifice it would take to be a good physician. I discovered my love for ceramics in 2014, around the same time I completed my medical training. I was in need of an outlet for my stress and ceramics was a perfect fit. I mostly create functional ware. I enjoy perfecting details such as the curvature of the lip of the vessel for drinking, making a handle comfortable for the fingers to grasp, or creating a foot that wouldn’t scratch a countertop. I literally made mugs only for a whole year because I kept making minor adjustments and improvements! I truly believe it’s the little details that can make the biggest difference.

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?
I would start the day with breakfast at the Heirloom Cafe and Bakery in South Pasadena. After breakfast, we would visit the Huntington Library and Gardens in San Marino where we could walk around, visit the exhibits, and have lunch/afternoon tea in the Rose Garden. I would then drive to the Hollywood Bowl for a concert and picnic dinner to end the day.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
I took my first ceramics class with Carol Aronowsky at Xiem Clay Center, now known as Green and Bisque Clay House in Pasadena. Carol had also been in the medical field, having been a Speech therapist, turned potter. Her delightful personality and love of ceramics was absolutely contagious and I was hooked on day one!

Instagram: madpotter2020

Image Credits
Personal photo is of me (on the left) and my mother (on the right). We discovered ceramics together 6 years ago and have been addicted ever since. We are both members of Green and Bisque Clayhouse in Pasadena.