Vivika and Otto Heino

While serving in the U.S. Air Force, Otto Heino became interested in pottery by watching British potter Bernard Leach throw pots. Vivika, née Vivien Place, received a teaching degree and then spent two year with the WPA theater project in San Francisco. Once she discovered pottery, Vivika studied at the California School of Fine Arts (now the San Francisco Art Institute), and then at the University of Southern California, where she worked under Glen Lukens, the ceramist known for his revolutionary glazing techniques. Vivika exhibited her pots at the 1939 Golden Gate International Exposition, and then enrolled at the Swedish Applied Arts in San Francisco. In 1941, she earned an MFA from New York state... more.