KOBO Seattle | since 1995
"In our day-to-day lives we can lose our connection to the natural world that encompasses our manmade surroundings. Our awareness is transformed by the way we adapt to a changing world, sometimes oblivious to the spirit of life and living. Simple things like hummingbirds in the garden or warm sun on a chilly winter day are cause to slow down and contemplate our place in the bigger picture.
My sculpture and ceramic work is about slowing down and considering the natural world and rhythms that surround me. This labor-intensive process and the unpredictable nature of wood firing for three days forces me to slow my pace and consider every step. By working with fire, I also feel directly connected to the long line of ceramics history. If not for fire, ceramics would not exist. This is my way of paying homage and preserving my links with the past.
How do we stay connected to the natural world while living a modern life? That's for each of us to decide."
About Conrad:
"I was home birthed on a strawberry farm in Cupertino, California on land that is now known as Silicon Valley. Any trace of that Filipino strawberry farmers co-op has long been erased, buried under cement and asphalt. Both my parents emigrated from the Philippines. My dad arrived in the 1920’s, first working the sugar cane plantations in Hawaii before traveling to California. He labored in fields from California to Washington before traveling to Alaska to work in a salmon cannery in Ketchikan. He was back in California’s Salinas Valley when WWII broke out. Enlisting in the army, he was stationed in New Guinea and then the Philippines where he met and courted my mom. After the war, my dad returned to California working and saving for my mom’s passage to California where all ten of their children were born. Born in 1953, I am the fifth of ten.
Much of my early years were spent living in California’s rural Santa Clara Valley where my parents initially farmed strawberries, and later labored in fields and orchards around Gilroy, San Martin, Morgan Hill, Salinas, and Watsonville before finding steady employment in a garlic processing plant in Gilroy. To supplement our family’s income, my siblings and I worked in the fields and orchards during our summers and some weekends during the school year. My early years of spending so much time outside and living rurally nurtured my interest and respect for nature and the outdoors."
