Happy Birthday to Beatrice Wood (March 3, 1893-March 12, 1996) one of my top five favorite artists! I am such a fangirl that I just got off a two hour Zoom birthday celebration event tonight at The Beatrice Wood Center for the Arts, which is in Ojai, CA. So fun to hear stories about Beatrice from friends, colleagues and admirers of all ages, from all walks of life, and all over the world, and to hear confirmation of what a wonderful, smart and fun person that she was.

Before the pandemic, I went to visit my friend Libby who lives not too far from Ojai. Even though we knew the center was closed that day, we went to snoop around.

As we were peeking in the window of Beatrice’s still intact studio, an older man inside waved us in. He let us look around the studio, told us all about Beatrice, and how he had reformulated her old glaze recipes (many of which had included lead). It was a visit I will never forget, as I had wanted to go there forever. We talked to that lovely man for well over an hour. Libby became a card carrying member of the Beatrice Wood fan club that day.

Happy Birthday, Beato! We should all be so lucky to have so many people wanting to celebrate our 127th.