CRAFTING AMERICANA : L.A.'S SPIRIT CAPTURED IN WORKS COLLECTED FOR THE WHITE HOUSE.

Byline: Betty Kwong Daily News Staff Writer

A red teapot fashioned in the image of tree limbs, a ceramic ewer wearing a feathered fishing lure, and an intricately carved wood cityscape - each created by local artists, each once housed in the White House, now touring the country.

The works of Ralph Bacerra of Pasadena, Adrian Saxe of Los Angeles and Po Shun Leong of Winnetka are on display as part of the 73-piece exhibit ``The White House Collection of American Crafts,'' which opened Thursday at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.

To recognize the nation's craft artists, first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton worked with Michael Monroe, curator of the Smithsonian's Renwick Gallery, to pull together a collection of works by both established and emerging artists who use a broad array of crafts media. The eclectic collection was assembled in 1993, designated ``Year of American Craft: A Celebration of the Creative Work of the Hand.''

The modern-day creations first were exhibited beneath 19th-century portraits of presidents and on marble-topped mahogany tables in the White House. The collection has been making its way around the country in the traveling exhibit since 1995.

Like the ``Cityscape Box'' that Leong donated to the White House collection, the complex wood structures he builds are in the homes of celebrities and private collectors around the world.

Yet they have the humblest beginnings.

``A lot of the wood is brought to me from a tree cutter in the Valley,'' Leong said with a chuckle.

``They don't have to be exotic woods from the jungle,'' he said. ``People grow these common trees in their gardens and, when they fall down, they're brought to me. So it's sort of like giving the trees a second life.''

Leong, who was trained as an architect and worked as a furniture designer when he first came to the United States, discovered his talent for wood creations 16 years ago.

``In my spare time, on the machines, I made tiny little boxes,'' he said. ``We sold them at the crafts fair in Westwood for $2 each. They sold like hot cakes.''

His works go for far more these days.

He chose his ``Cityscape Box'' for the White House with deliberation.

``It's made entirely of American wood,'' Leong said. ``This was made in America and grown in America.''

Like Leong, Bacerra finds inspiration in his own back yard - literally.

He contributed a dramatic teapot - vibrant red with geometric accents - whose body and limbs were cast from branches and twigs that had been cut down from trees at his Pasadena home.

``It's a statement about who I am, what I do,'' Bacerra said. ``I like color, a lot of patterns.''

Bacerra, who has been working with ceramics for more than 30 years and has been on the faculty of Los Angeles' Chouinard Art School and Otis College of Art and Design, said the request to participate in the White House's collection of craft arts took him by surprise.

``It was the year of the craft, but I didn't know that the White House was going to start a collection,'' he said. ``I was honored to be asked to be part of the collection.''

For Saxe, a professor of art at the University of California, Los Angeles, and an artist honing his craft for 25 years, the invitation to be part of the White House collection meant more than getting a spot in the first family's home.

``I participated in it with hopes that it ends up as a national collection that would be available to the public,'' Saxe said. ``Being in the White House alone wasn't enough for me to get involved, although it is an honor to have been selected.''

Bacerra and Saxe both have pieces on display in museums around the world. Leong's work has been featured in a number of art books.

Saxe's works are one of a kind.

Take the untitled ewer that he donated to the White House collection, for example. It's a shiny black teapot studded with jewels, bearing a fancy gold baroque handle and a rubber crawfish dangling from its cap.

``It's to make people become much more self-consciously aware of how they operate things that at first seem very familiar,'' Saxe said.

``If you have a fishing lure or something nasty where normally you would make physical contact - where you would touch the pottery - it would make them very careful about handling that pot,'' he said. ``All that stuff is to increase the kind of presence of the work beyond just an ordinary teapot, when you use it in a state of distraction, when you're more interested in getting the tea poured.''

The traveling exhibit, these artists hope, will help the public distinguish the difference between fine art and kitsch craft.

``Craft can be a pejorative term,'' Saxe said. ``In some people's minds, it can be a lesser form of art handed down by tradition and learned by rote, rather than a singular, unique expression.''

THE FACTS The show: ``The White House Collection of American Crafts.''

Where: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 5905 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles.

When: 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesdays through Thursdays, 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Fridays, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays. Through Sept. 29.

Tickets: $6 adults, $4 students 18 and older and senior citizens 62 and older; $1 children and younger students; free for children 5 and younger. The second Wednesday of every month is free to all. Call [phone] or visit http://www.lacma.org/.

CAPTION(S):

6 Photos

Photo: (1--Cover--Color) Direct from the White House

Cra fts exhibit spotlights works of three local artists

(2--Color) The White House Collection of American Crafts includes Randy J. Stromsoe's ``Centerpiece Bowl on Three-legged Stand.''

(3--Color) Po Shun Leong's ``Landscape Box'' is a replica of his ``Cityscape Box,'' which the Winnetka artist donated to the White House collection. ``It's made entirely of American wood,'' Leong says. ``This was made in America and grown in America.''

(4--Color) ``It was the year of the craft, but I didn't know that the White House was going to start a collection,'' says artist Ralph Bacerra of Pasadena. ``I was honored to be asked to be part of the collection.''

Mendoza/Daily News

(5--Color) ``Crimson/Green Blue'' is Sonja Blomdahl's blown-glass creation.

(6--Color) ``Beau Couple From the Chaos and Order Series'' by Toots Zynsky is fused, slumped and hand-formed glass.