Recent CSUN graduate Janisse Gracia specializes in creating ceramic vessels and objects, allowing her to find meaning in the art of rolling and shaping clay. Her artwork explores routine, repetition, daily life, community and human connection.
Her February 2025 piece “Residual Flow,” a shower head at first glance, reflects something much deeper. “This piece explores the quiet aftermath of use…Even in its stillness, it holds the memory of flow — of water rushing through pipes, of cleansing, of daily ritual,” she said. Through the work of routine, her art focuses on one key factor.
“My work is about connection — how objects hold meaning, how they serve as vessels for memory and emotion, and how they bring people together,” she said. “[It] is both personal and communal, serving as a metaphor for the ways we relate to ourselves and others.”
This academic year, grad student and President of CSUN Ceramics Guild Janisse Gracia ’17 (Art), MFA ’25 (Visual Arts) received a scholarship from the Sascha Brastoff Foundation. The foundation recently donated $200,000 to the Department of Art and Design in the Mike Curb College of Arts, Media, and Communication to continue helping CSUN ceramics students. The new donation created separate endowments devoted to scholarships and program expenses such as travel and exhibition shipping.
“I am grateful for the scholarship because it helped me fund my education in ceramic art,” Gracia said.
Sascha Brastoff was an incredibly artistic individual, studying ballet, performing arts and
ceramics and working for 20th Century Fox Studios in Los Angeles as a costume designer. In
1953, he opened an impressive ceramics factory and showroom on Olympic Boulevard; his
influential work included dinnerware sets, vases, decorative plates, figurines and more.
The Sascha Brastoff Foundation has supported CSUN for more than a decade. As its trustees dissolved the foundation, the family of the famed ceramicist and designer chose to create the endowments to support CSUN students in perpetuity.
“The impact to our students has been huge and we are so deeply grateful for their support,” said Patsy Cox, CSUN professor of visual art.
For Gracia, receiving this scholarship is a recognition of her dedication to her craft, and helps her explore the work that connects her to her humanity.
“My inspiration comes from the process itself — working with clay allows me to physically engage with emotions, translating them into form,” she said. “I find meaning in the act of making, in the repetitive motions of pinching, rolling, and shaping clay. These actions anchor me in the present, fostering a sense of play and introspection.”
To support CSUN ceramics or create a fund of your own, please contact the CSUN Office of Development at (818) 677-2786 or development@csun.edu.
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