Ceramicist Ehren Tool

I Kind of Live in a Constant State of Embarrassment

Ehren Tool is a Berkeley-based artist who primarily makes ceramic cups; he’s given away over 18,300 of them since 2001. He is also a veteran of the Gulf War. Before participating in the Zócalo/MOCA panel “Is Art Our Last Safe Space?” he told us in the Zócalo green room what inspired his most recent cup, and what he’s most likely to drink out of a cup.

Q:

Since you make cups I’ll ask—what’s your drink of choice?


A:

It’s sober October right now, so sparkling water. But often it’s IPAs.


Q:

What do you wake up to?


A:

My son.


Q:

As a child, what did you want to be when you grew up?


A:

It wasn’t a potter, for sure, or an artist.


Q:

How many pairs of shoes do you own?


A:

I have one pair of Crocs that I never wear outside the garden. And then five others. I rotate them through. These are my good pair; when they wear out a bit, they’ll be the work pair. They’re all the same brand, Thorogood. They’re boots union-made in America.


Q:

Spicy, medium, or mild?


A:

Medium.


Q:

What’s your beard-care regimen?


A:

[Laughs.] Just try to get the food out and keep it out. My son said two summers ago, “Dad, I like your beard better than your face.” I think my wife agreed. That wasn’t my choice. I’m still figuring out how to drive it. I started shaving in the Marine Corps, finally grew it out two summers ago, and it’s all white.


Q:

What question do you wish people would ask veterans?


A:

The question I’d like asked more is, how can we stop making veterans?


Q:

What condiment do you use most often?


A:

Local, organic hot sauce.


Q:

What does it take to embarrass you?


A:

I kind of live in a constant state of embarrassment.


Q:

What inspired your most recent cup?


A:

We screen-printed the Rose of No Man’s Land, a common World War I tattoo of a nurse’s head in a rose. So much of my work is super dark and hard to look at, but we were in France near the battlefield of Verdun. Even in that war, somebody’s trying to help in the most horrid situations you can think. Almost always, someone’s trying to help.


*Photo by Aaron Salcido.