Senior Pottery Instructer & Founder of Rokuro
Biography
- Rokuro Master Andrew James Jacoff was born in Boston in the year 1988 to parents Paula, a docent and tourguide for the blind and disabled at the MFA Boston and Mark, a racehorse owner/breeder and accomplished pianist/guitarist. He has one sister, an english as a second language teacher at one of Boston's public schools. A graduate of the Studio Arts program of Skidmore College in Saratoga Springs, New York, Jacoff focused on studying art throughout his life.
- He began studying Pottery in a more refined setting during his attendance of the Brookline High-school under the tutelage of Dr. Gregory Steinseck. A student of professor Regis Brodie at University, Andrew continued on his path as a fabricator of fine art pottery, employing both the the potter's wheel, or rokuro, as well as hand building and sculpting; also combining the two disciplines to create wheel thrown work with an added element of three dimensional texture.
- During his time in college, Jacoff also diligently studied drawing, painting, printmaking, intaglio, jewlery and metal smithing, digital design, art history, music and geology. Exhausting all of the recommended coursework, including independent studies for the ceramic arts, Jacoff spent the remainder of his college career in the textile and silk screen printing studio honing his skills at fabric design, sewing, screen printing and fashion.
Jacoff's Senior Year Thesis Project, a show entitled: "Lamps" featured at the Case Gallery in Saratoga Springs, NY
This small exhibit featured many works by the artist including lamps wired and created by the artist with Batik method dyed lamp shades accenting their beauty and giving them true functionality that remains intact to this day. The exhibit also included some of Jacoff's rather large presentation style bowls, Green Tea Bowls, salt fired sake bottles and a piece inspired as a duplication of the Claret Jug, prized trophy of the Major Golf Tournament the British Open.
A Quartet of Salt and Soda Fired Sake Bottles
Andrew holds this set of bottles very dear to this day despite the fact that all but one bottle now belong to private collections. The eclectic set contains four drastically divergent personalities known (from left to right) as "Warped" "Smooth" "Ghostly" and "Picasso" last: named for the artist's little known career in ceramics and an attempt at duplication of his surprising two dimensional surface aesthetic. However Picasso did not use the potter's wheel.