Magnificent art pottery owl totem noted artist Jarl Hesselbarth

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Magnificent art pottery owl totem noted artist Jarl Hesselbarth

About the Item

A magnificent large Owl totem art pottery sculpture by the noted artist Jarl Hesselbarth. This unique piece us hand thrown and exquisitely rendered. It is mounted on a wood bas and signed on the bottom Jarl Hesselbarth, Hyde Park, NY. This sculpture was purchased out of a beautiful estate overlooking the Hudson River. A really wonderful and monumental piece of art pottery. A brief biography follows from the artist's and his wife's website;
The village was saddened by the recent loss of Susie Hesselbarth; but in remembering her one must smile. Susie always had a smile. A resident artist since 1963, she left her mark not only in the hearts of those who knew her but her work is evident as one strolls around Tubac.

Susie was from Evanston, Illinois and attended Chicago Art Institute. She went to work as a greeting card artist for Buzza Corporation.

According to Susie’s daughter, Kim Yubeta, her mother had always wanted to paint and she did what she loved up until the last year of her life.

Susie’s husband of 22 years was Jarl Hesselbarth, a Norwegian wheel potter and coppersmith. During the 40’s the couple had a shop on Bleeker Street in Greenwich Village, New York. He threw stoneware pots and she painted and glazed them. Kim remembers them as always very loving to each other.

When the Hesselbarth family came to Tubac at the urging of Sophie and Harwood Steiger, they bought a place to live from El Meyer. Kim remembers that there were very few buildings in town: Sid Cedargreen’s (now Cloud Dancer), Will Rogers, the gas station (now studios at 2 Plaza Road), Nichols, Steiger and Valentine place studio/homes. Susie was a big city girl and “she cried for the first year.” However, Will and Collier Rogers took the family under their wing and they found great friends in Tubac, including Jean and Mortimer Wilson.

For years the family returned in summer to their home (a converted chicken coop on the Vanderbilt estate) in Hyde Park. Jarl’s mother came from Oslo, Norway each summer to work as the upstairs maid for the Rockefeller family. Kim said that Susie, who could not be hurried and had a very relaxed lifestyle, was a flurry of cleaning action when Grandmother Hesselbarth was due to arrive.

In the 60’s and 70’s Tubac was a very small arts colony and all the artists were friends. They would gather for pot luck dinners to discuss their vision for putting Tubac on the arts map; they felt it would be the next Sedona within 10 years. The group formed the Santa Cruz Valley Art Association in 1973 and it is still functioning as the Tubac Center of the Arts.

After Jarl Hesselbarth died in 1971, Susie continued to live and work in Tubac. She brought her mother out and cared for her in her final years; O.G. (Old Grandmother) lived to be 101.

Susie liked to go across the line into Mexico, by herself with her painting supplies; and wander around until she found a subject she wanted to paint. Kim said she had no fear of anyone or anything. “She saw the world through rose-colored glasses.”

Susie loved painting with watercolors but her bread-and-butter were her tiles. She made the street signs that grace the Village. When a realtor from Green Valley commissioned her to paint decorative house numbers for him to give to his clients – the tiles were in high demand; her tile art can be seen over much of the Santa Cruz Valley. The tiles she finished – however, Kim said that Susie had hundreds of unfinished paintings. She loved the clean sheet of paper, arranging her subject flowers, the wetting of the brush – she enjoyed beginnings. When asked about the unfinished paintings, she’d reply with a smile, “I’ll get back to them.”

Many of Susie’s paintings were of flowers, birds and napping cats; she adored animals. And, she grew to love Arizona and couldn’t imagine living under any other sky. She enjoyed travel and instead of a camera she took her sketch pad to record her journey. Kim said her mother was ready to go anywhere – from a trip to the store to a trip to Europe. For many years if you saw Kim – you saw Susie. They were the best of friends.

Kim’s two children, Aaryn and Jake, were always a delight to their grandmother. They spent many hours together as she worked on art projects with them – they adored her.

As time passed, Susie left the house in Tubac to live with Kim and her family in Tumacacori. Much of Susie’s artwork was lost in the fire that recently claimed the Yubeta’s home. Susie died shortly before her 88th birthday.

One of the most popular tiles that Susie painted was of a burro with the saying, “How beautiful it is to do nothing and rest after . . .”

That was Susie–comfortable, happy and loved in her world.

Photos and remembrances from Kim Yubeta.

Dimensions:
Height: 38.5 in (97.79 cm)Width: 12 in (30.48 cm)Depth: 12 in (30.48 cm)
Materials and Techniques:
Terracotta
Place of Origin:
United States
Period:
1960-1969
Date of Manufacture:
1960's
Condition:
Some old repairs to two beaks and some minor nick and abrasions.
Seller Location:
Palm Springs, CA
Reference Number:
1stDibs: U0902058350674