Carol Martens
Carol is an accomplished ceramic artist. She is the founder of IOKA Pottery and received her BFA in ceramics from Alfred University in New York. She has exhibited her pottery locally and internationally. Her experience in art, pottery, and teaching spans thirty years. Carol teaches our Tuesday evening Ceramics: Wheel-Throwing class.

Garrett Stryker
Garrett has a Bachelor of Arts degree in studio art with a ceramics emphasis from CSU Fullerton. He has been involved in teaching and volunteering at the Fine Arts Center since 1992. He maintains his own private ceramics studio and sells his work through galleries and art shows. Garrett is conscientious about continuing education in the ceramics field and has also conducted seminars for various organizations. His class offerings include Ceramics: Wheel-Throwing on Monday evenings, and Beginning/Intermediate Pottery, a special four hour per session pottery class on Thursday mornings.

Jane Nishii
Jane is one of our long-time (over twenty years!) ceramics instructors. She has a Bachelor of Arts degree in ceramics and has traveled extensively studying pottery styles in Mexico and Japan, as well as Native American pottery. She is a member of the Japanese Ceramics Guild and has exhibited her work widely. Jane teaches our Ceramic Art classes and emphasizes wheel, table, and glaze techniques.

Julia Klemek
Julia is another of our long-time instructors with well over twenty years teaching in our studio, at UCI, and at Orange Coast College. She has a Master of Fine Arts from UCI and exhibits widely. Her public art projects are in several California locations. Her most recent installations are here in Irvine and also in Long Beach. Julia teaches Ceramics Plus!, a class which also includes practice with a live model, sculptural forms, and a pit firing at the beach.

Kaoru Kaplan
Kaoru provides ceramics instruction in English and in Japanese as needed. Her background includes educational experience in Tokyo, Japan, Melbourne, Australia, Boston, MA and Manchester, NH. Her exhibition record also spans the globe. Japanese Inspired Ceramics is a course created by Kaoru where students can learn wheel-throwing and hand-building of objects as well as final glazing.

Scott has a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Ceramics from CSU Fullerton. He has been developing his own style of ceramic artwork for over ten years. He is also the ceramics technician at Mt. San Antonio College, and a former ceramics technician here at the IFAC ceramics studio. Scott teaches Pottery: Wheel-Throwing and Hand Building, a class that includes a variety of techniques designed to help you build dexterity and gain an aesthetic understanding of ceramics.

Unjoo Chang

Unjoo has taught art as an elementary school teacher. She is a
member of the American Ceramics Society and has displayed her
work at the American Museum of Ceramic Art in Pomona.


Beverly C. Turner

A creative artist since 1966, Beverly has been a Commissioned
portraiture artist in varies mediums including pastel, oil and clay,
and has worked under artist greats Philippe Faraut and Bruno Luccesi.
Beverly finds passion capturing figurative emotion with clay. For more info.
and to view her portfolio visit www.beverlyturnersculpture.com.

Lynn King, Lead Ceramics Technician

Lynn is a ceramics artist who has come to us from the medical field. She is enthusiastic about ceramic art and sculpture and enjoys experimenting with various clays and glazes. Her artwork is evidence of her passion, which has earned her exhibition space in local galleries. Lynn diligently works with Susie to keep the ceramics studio clean and well maintained. She helps to load and unload all five main kilns, which run continuously. Lynn has also participated in several of our ceramics and sculpture classes, which give her the added advantage of understanding our class structure from the participant’s perspective.