Retired educator sculpted art program

 Jim Bass spends his days in a small workshop in Mountain Ranch, creating collectible ceramic art pieces — some inlaid with original Mayan art — while listening to rock ‘n‘ roll music.

Bass is the kind of man who inspires a love for art in students and is someone to listen to, friends say.
   

A graduate of Pepperdine University, Bass, 67, taught art at Calaveras High School in San Andreas for 33 years and many say can be credited for building the art department.  

“He built that department up from a box of paper to two complete classrooms, a serious art department that anyone could have graduated from and gone on to become a serious artist,” said former student and longtime friend Pam Quyle, of Quyle Kilns in Murphys.

He also taught art at Columbia College and several other colleges and universities.

Former Calaveras Unified School District Superintendent Jim Frost described Bass as “a wonderful man.”

“A program like art, since it’s not a required class, the instructors have to appeal to the kids,” Frost said. “He had a valuable well-structured curriculum ... kids found interesting and fun.”

Frost said Bass had high standards, for his art, himself and his students.

“He had an ability to develop positive relationships with kids of all stripes. His program grew and flourished because of that,” Frost said.

“He’s inspired 30 years of teens to have a much stronger appreciation of art,” Quyle said.

Frost said Bass was an influential staff member and a leader.

“When Jim spoke, everyone that was smart listened,” Frost said.

Bass' stepfather served in the U.S. Air Force and they moved around during his youth to various places including Texas, New Mexico and Nevada.

“I still have a little Texas accent,” Bass said.

Bass’ interest in pottery began early. “It’s been a kind of natural thing,” he said.

"My mother said I was out playing by the old pump. She said, ‘I guess you’ve always wanted your hands in dirt,’ ” Bass recalled.

He took art classes in high school in Las Vegas and New Mexico.
 

He attended Shasta Junior College after having taken a basic ceramics class and ended up teaching pottery to some students, Bass said.

However, he first chose agriculture as a major before switching to art.

“I kind of started blooming then,” he said. “It was a good choice for me.”

Bass transferred to Pepperdine University in Los Angeles and graduated in 1965.
  Bass enjoyed his teaching career and said working with students was rewarding.

“I love the kids. I was really lucky because they wanted to be there,” Bass said. “I had kids whose parents I had in class ... I didn’t have discipline problems.”

“The greatest thing was to be able to see what they can do,” said Bass, who also taught art history, drawing, painting and other art courses.

“Kids just have so much enthusiasm. If you can get them excited, you’ve won,” he said.

While teaching fulltime at Calaveras High, Bass also owned a pottery shop in Mokelumne Hill for nine years, and taught classes at Columbia College, San Joaquin Delta College, California State University, Stanislaus, and the University of California, Davis.

He retired from teaching 10 years ago.

“I needed to do something else,” he said.

For 15 years, Bass has displayed pottery at Quyle Kilns in Murphys.

Bass is a longtime friend of the Quyles, having met family members shortly after his arrival in Calaveras County.

“His pieces are all one-of-a-kind art pottery pieces,” Pam Quyle said. “He has a following of people who collect his work exclusively.”

Bass also creates functional wear, Quyle said.

Bass enjoys incorporating birds, Mayan and Southwestern painting into his creations.

A favorite addition to his pottery is a mold of an original Mayan dancing monkey, a gift from the late Joyce Quyle, Pam’s mother.

It was a gift to Quyle from the director of the Antiquities Museum in Mexico City, Pam Quyle said. 

When he’s not in his pottery shop, Bass gardens, fishes and grows apples, pears, persimmons, walnuts and grapes.
 

He’s a friendly, smiling man, who has a wife and four children.

Quyle described Bass as a man with “a great sense of humor, kind and good in every way.”
 

Bass said he usually spends five to eight hours a day in his pottery workshop.

“I listen to rock ‘n‘ roll music all day and zone out,” Bass said. “There’s nothing more therapeutic than taking a piece of clay and making something out of it.”
   
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