Jean Yates, Jean Perry Yates

Born 1921  Houston, Texas

Died 2014  Santa Rosa, California

PRIMARY WORK EXPERIENCE

1940-               United States Air Corp

1954-1962       High School Ceramics teacher, Sonoma Valley High School, Santa Rosa, California

1962-1984       Professor of Art, Santa Rosa Junior College, Santa Rosa, California

                        Professor Emeritus at Santa Rosa Junior College

BIOGRAPHY

Jean Yates is known for hand-built stoneware functional pottery, as well as abstract sculptures. In particular, Yates is known for a series of slab-constructed multimedia, rectangular baskets, with wooden handles, examples of which are in the American Museum of Ceramic Art and Santa Rosa Junior College collections.  Other materials employed in his sculptural vessel works include, metal, cloth, and branches.

Yates joined the US Air Corp in 1940 and served in World War II as a radio operator in Africa and Asia. Returning to the US after the War, Yates attended classes at the University of Chicago, Northwestern and the Art Institute of Chicago. It was at the Art Institute that Yates developed his interest in three dimensional objects. In the 1960s Yates took classes from San Francisco Bay area artists: Robert Arneson, Marguerite Wildenhain, Paul Soldner, and Toshiko Takezu. Yates credited these artists with opening him to new work possibilities.[1]