John Dirks

Born in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin John Dirks graduated from Hoover High School in 1932. While at San Diego State College, he grew interested in art under the mentorship of professor and painter Everett Gee Jackson.

John Dirks moved with his family to California in 1921. Winner of the Distinguished Alumnus Award from San Diego’s Hoover High School, where he studied architectural drawing and crafts, he graduated from San Diego State College with a bachelor’s degree in art in 1937.

While in college, he established Dirks’ Design Workshop, a studio where he made small sculptures and wooden bowls that were sold by Gump’s in San Francisco as well as furniture for private collections in San Diego. During this period, his expertise in hi-fi equipment led him to build music systems, including wooden speaker enclosure.

John taught art at Hoover High School from 1939 – 1943, leaving there to become an instructor at Convair for the Army Air Corps. In 1944, he joined the Navy as an officer and after V-J Day became the officer in charge of completion of the Hobby Lobby, the largest hobby shop in the United States at that time and the first in a chain of hobby shops now found on ships and large military bases.

Mr. Dirks joined the Art Department at San Diego State College in 1948, teaching there for 29 years. He served as a charter member of the Faculty Senate, Art Department faculty chair and President of the American Association of University Professors San Diego Chapter and was faculty advisor to the College Art Guild, a student organization, from 1950 until his retirement.

Beginning in the 1940s and into the early ’90s, in the garage studio behind the Mt. Helix home he built into the side of the mountain (his second self-built home), Dirks created furniture and fine-wood sculptures inspired by Arts and Crafts era icons like Frank Lloyd Wright and pioneering modernists from the Bauhaus school.

Dirks received a Master of Fine Arts degree from Claremont Graduate School in 1960.

John served as director of programming for the San Diego Arts Guild, bringing to San Diego performers like experimental composer John Cage and modern-dance choreographer Merce Cunningham. He was chair of the San Diego Museum of Art’s Latin American arts committee, working to introduce the city’s art collectors to that genre, and he was a charter member of the Allied Craftsmen.

Collections
‘Justice Tree’, Vista Courthouse
‘Visual Communication’, KFSD studios (now KGTV)
Lighted Star at the San Diego Sports Arena

Exhibitions
Mingei International Museum
Museum of Contemporary Crafts, New York
Pomona Invitational National Arts and Crafts Exhibition
San Diego Museum of Art
San Diego Historical Society
World Congress of Craftsmen in New York