Biography
Chuck Venook’s formal education in the arts began in the public school system of Orange County, where he learned ceramics from Mrs. Anderson at Woodbridge High.
​He went on to attend the nearby community college, studying with Tom Gaines. It was there that he began to develop his life-long passion for ceramic arts. Mr. Venook next attended California State University at Long Beach (CSULB), where he earned his Bachelor of Fine Arts degree. CSULB had a well-rounded and robust ceramics and art program, and he was fortunate to be appointed as a teaching assistant. This allowed him to work intensively alongside accomplished artists, such as faculty artists Janet Neuwalder, Charlene Roth and Tony Marsh, then Department Chair and one of the major influences of the time. It was here that Mr.Venook developed a superior technical and conceptual comprehension of the medium and an uncompromising work practice. CSULB also had a progressive and proactive visiting artist program, and as a result
​Mr. Venook had the good fortune of working with several esteemed artists. One summer under the direction of Brook LeVan, he made 15 tons of adobe and built ten
​9-foot-tall bread ovens. Working alongside Seung Jae Choi and Inn Chun Lee from Hong Ik University, he learned how an artist’s culture filters into every aspect of art making. As an assistant to Jean Pierre Laroque for a year, he was able to gain insight into how the perspective of a painter and sculptor can bring non traditional methods toclay. However, the one visiting artist who had the strongest influence on Mr. Venook’s work as an artist was Tony Hepburn, with whom he subsequently studied as a graduate student at Cranbrook Academy of Art in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan. After finishing his Master’s degree, Mr. Venook chose to move to a rural area of the Appalachian Mountains of South Carolina, where he could live simply in a natural environment. Over the next ten years he had many interesting experiences, including living in an
​80-year-old converted train boxcar without heat, a 100-year old log cabin with a few more amenities, and then a vegetable storage barn. He bartered a majority of the cost of rent in exchange for remodeling them into reasonable living spaces, replacing roofs, adding windows, bathrooms and kitchens, all the while broadening his perspective of art and life. This chapter of living in an environment, removed from the distractions of city life, attuned to the natural world and needing few material objects to live comfortably, enabled Mr. Venook to develop a simple philosophy of life and shaped his artistic sensibility to be more congruent with the natural world. Recycling became the main focus of his day-to-day living, and he was able to live off the land and create everyday items through recycled materials. During this time he also furthered his musical and culinary talents, playing guitar and piano as well as cooking with fresh ingredients from his gardens and the surrounding natural environment.