At the foot of a flight of steps, two of Justin Hoffman’s ceramic vessels sit on the ground welcoming us into his studio and home in Walnut Creek. The first is squat and bulbous, marked with bold black painted lines, the other, simpler and earthier. The kind of objects that you end up living with when your work life is a natural extension of your home.
The house itself is a warm-toned timber structure that rises in sections up a wooded hillside. Walnut Creek is just east of San Francisco, all bucolic hills and greenery. It’s shaded by oak trees and bay laurel and almost disappearing into the canopy. Behind the house, a seemingly expanse of fragrant Northern California vegetation.
Justin meets us on the deck and shows us into his studio space. It was the house itself that brought him out to Walnut Creek from Berkeley, where he’d been living before. He’s been out here for a few years now, living and making. “If it wasn’t for this space, I don’t think I’d be staying all the way out in Walnut Creek,” he says laughing, but its a beautiful place to find oneself in. “Every single night you get an incredible sunset here. And then after the sun sets, the fog comes in and rolls up the hill, and you’re just engulfed in it for the whole night. Taking walks at night, it’s just like you’re in another world.”
The studio is tucked away under the main living spaces of the house, and is overflowing with Justin’s work. Shelves full of pieces he’s finished, a work bench for those having their finishing touches applied. They jostle for space with Japanese ceramics, folk pottery, sculpture, that he’s collected from his travels and which form an immersive archive of inspiration. Justin describes it as a kind of space where he can be “constantly inspired by everything around me.”
Outside, in a corner of the garden, is what he calls the graveyard: a low patch of ground where the rejects end up. Cracked rims, collapsed forms, pieces that came out of the kiln wrong or simply didn’t meet the standard he sets for himself. He is unsentimental about it. Things that don’t work get sent out there.
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