THE ART OF FLEXIBILITY: Local artist immerses herself in learning process

Spanish-born philosopher George Santayana once said, “The wisest mind has something yet to learn.”

Most folks dabble and dip into new things and the obstacles they encounter cause them to quit and move on, and it’s true that local artist Alicia Cejka moves on—“about every five years”—she admits, but not before she immerses herself in the learning process.

Redefining and reconstructing, Cejka will first conform to the accepted precepts and protocols she’s acquired in the last three and half years creating from clay, continuing to satisfy an insatiable thirst for discovery, but then just as passionately, the self-learning side emerges and she’s off into her own little world, taking the piece with her.

Like everything else she’s taken a shot at, she picks it up quickly, then carries it beyond what most would even hope for.

“The clay and I together decide now how it’s going to turn out,” explains the 57-year-old retired homemaker, mother of three, new grandma, and former auto and motorcycle detailing artist.

No formal training

With no formal art training, not even a high school art class, the Prairie du Chien, Wis., native was curious about her California cousin’s booming detailing business—remember the beachcombing vans with the wild scenes painted on the sides?

It was 1975, and the new young mom was teaching yoga and belly dancing at her hometown community center, making her own costumes (she made her wedding dress), and looking for another new challenge. So, after spending some quality learning time with cousin Mark Lueck, one of the top five airbrush artists in the country then, she returned to Wisconsin so good at it that she was featured in the October ‘78 edition of Overdrive magazine for her design on the cab of an 18-wheeler that won her their “Tractor of the Month” award.

She did a few vans and pickups, too, but became more widely known for her artwork on motorcycles.

“The neighbors saw a lot of guys on their Harleys riding up our driveway,” she recalled, smiling.

Her dad was a mechanic and her brother is a parts manager for a motorcycle dealership, so she grew up around big bikes, but says she was content to ride on the back and hold on.

Business degree

Raising her kids and caring for husband John, an engineer for 3M, were always first priorities, although she did manage to earn a business degree at age 50, and after tagging along with her mother to an art class, took up oil painting about 20 years ago.

“I was always drawn to those little activities on my own that didn’t interfere with raising a family. It seemed like I would do them for about five years and then try something else. Maybe I just got bored with them.”

Eventually, her oil paintings sold well locally, as did the pins and earrings she learned to create, but she is willing to acknowledge this time that maybe she’ll still be working with clay more than five years out.

“I like creating three-dimensional things,” she stated, explaining the joy she gets from feeling her hands working through the creation.

She builds the basic form on the wheel, then hand-sculpts her own original twists into it as she alters the piece from a vision she might have formed in her mind the day before.

She likes “extension with one idea on the wheel, then coming back and reworking it over and over by adding a new chunk of clay to the original as she sees something else she wants.

“I have more fun and it feels more creative to just wing it.”

Much of her work so far is doing animals, especially since she started with a beginner class to learn how to make a turtle.

“I went to a party and saw a clay turtle and wanted to learn to make one,” she remembers.

Another year and half and she still hadn’t made one, but once she figured it out, she characteristically immersed herself.

“I made 27 turtles,” she said. “For a while I was the turtle lady.”

She gave most away to friends and family, but has hung onto the ducks and fish, since they remind her of when she took the kids to feed them and all the times she and her fishing fan husband spent together in the boat or wading a stream.

In fact, they plan to return to Wisconsin soon so John can keep a hook in the water. Alicia hopes this time to add her own clay studio at the new house, which she will probably help John build, since she’s also handy with a hammer and nail. They constructed their first house together a long time ago.

Cejka admits she always doubted her ability to become an artist, and regrets just a little that she didn’t pursue an art major instead of a business major, but no one, not even she, can doubt her boundless curiosity and dogged determination to continue learning something new.

“I’m just going to be open to whatever comes along.”

Mike Touzeau is a freelance writer for the Green Valley News.