Yvonne Rust, QSM – Potter, Painter, Inspirational teacher

Yvonne Rust, QSM – An introduction – New Zealand’s influential pioneering potter, artist, arts teacher, with an unmatched gift for inspiring motivation.

Yvonne Rust, QSM, was born in 1922 in Whangarei while her parents were living at Awarua in Northland, where her father had a few weeks earlier been posted as the native school headmaster.

Yvonne Rust Early Years

When Yvonne was six, her father, Gordon, was posted to Te Hapua, the northernmost community in New Zealand, as the headmaster of that school. Her mother took the primary classes which included a Class Nought and through which all Maori students had to pass in order to gain sufficient English to be able to understand tuition in latter grades. Maori were keen to learn and the classes included some who were already thirty years old. Since the education department was unable to provide suitable furniture, these older students sat cross-legged on top of their desks.

In 1928 Te Hapua was struggling through the demise of the kauri gum trade. The depression had begun its savage grip and unemployment was rife. So too was TB which affected 75% of the Maori population. Yvonne was the only white child in this community where she lived until the age of twelve, absorbing from her environment much of the Maori way of thinking.

At eighteen she attended Canterbury College School of Art in Christchurch, following in her mother, Annie Buckhurst’s footsteps. Annie had been a highly regarded tutor at the College from 1917-21.

Yvonne Rust becomes a teacher and potter

Yvonne left art school and became an art teacher at a time in New Zealand when art was just being introduced into the general curriculum. Her capacity to relate to each child individually, as her father had done, had an enormous impact on the student’s development.

She was exposed to pottery being thrown on a wheel for the first in 1949. The potter, R N Field, was himself having significant impact on his adult art students in NZ. Yvonne was riveted and determined then that clay would be her medium. She went on in 1956 to set up the first National Pottery School and later was a driving force on the committee which brought Japanese master potter, Shoji Hamada and his son, Atsuya, to Christchurch.

In 1966 she moved to Greymouth, introducing pottery to the West Coast. Again her forceful personality forged a new consciousness and she taught West Coasters, up until then miners and foresters, to create with the raw materials that they reaped from the good earth. Greenstone carving, furniture and sculpture from native timbers, pottery from abundant clay.

Yvonne Rust institutes the Earth Building Association of New Zealand

When she moved to Northland, now 50 and in possession of considerable personal power, she drove forward with her hobby horse of encouraging NZ to see and utilise its abundant natural resources. She built an earth house and instituted EBANZ, the Earth Building Association of NZ, as well as encouraging Graeme North to develop the Earth Building Code for NZ.

The Quarry – Northland Craft Trust

She went on to develop the Northland Craft Trust at The Quarry, a centre for the experimentation and development of raw materials with particular reference to artists. The Quarry is today an arts resource centre, known around the country for its annual Summer-Do, a two week intensive school offering workshops in various artistic disciplines and utilising top tutors. In Greymouth again for the last years of her life, Yvonne set up the Yvonne Rust West Coast Arts Trust, designed to aid artists and provide them with an arts residency.

Yvonne Rust influence on NZ Art

Through her hands came many artists from many disciplines who continue today to contribute to NZ culture and heritage – Sir Jon Trimmer – ballet dancer, Raymond Hawthorn – theatre director, Graeme North – architect, Stephanie Sheehan – painter, John S Parker – Painter, John Crawford – potter, Ian Dalzell – potter, John Madden – Painter, and many, many more.

Her legacy was her powerful inspiration – the teaching that it was possible if only you would move towards it. Yvonne Rust – Maverick Spirit, is her biography and was released in June 2011.

©Theresa Sjoquist

Source: Many interviews and contributions to research for the biography, Yvonne Rust: Maverick Spirit

 

Yvonne Rust: Maverick Spirit – Fully illustrated e-book