She speaks with a range of emotions as she describes the planning and process behind her artwork, which is located in a studio attached to the back of her Willow Glen home.

"I love what I do," she says. "You really have to love it, because it is extremely hard to make a living as an artist."

Like many artists, she uses her craft to vent her emotions. Among a variety of colorful masks that hang throughout the studio, a vibrantly painted mask larger than all the others stands out. It was created after her daughter died of a brain tumor. Koepcke, 68, says molding the mask provided a therapeutic way of getting her emotions out.

And, just outside Koepcke's studio, in a hallway that houses her kilns, large canvases depict a man who is visibly ill, with an IV attached to his nose. Koepcke drew these paintings while she sat next to her husband's bedside in the hospital, before he died two years ago.

"Being able to express my emotions through art has made it possible to continue living," she says.

Recently, all her artistic energy has been focused on completing ceramic sculptures for a showing at the Triton Museum of Art in Santa Clara. She created ceramic sculptures of clothing inspired by Frida Kahlo, Georgia O'Keeffe and Emily Carr. She picked these artists because all three women painted during the same period—the early to mid-1900s—but focused on different geographic areas. Kahlo did Mexican-inspired paintings, while O'Keeffe's work concentrated on the southern part of the United States and Carr focused on British Columbia.

Koepcke likes to "research endlessly" and checked out every book she could on each woman at the San José State University library to prepare. Then she sketched "loose" drawings of how she wanted each piece to look. Each sculpture was made out of snakes of clay, and she added and subtracted clay until she was satisfied with the final results. She glazed each piece in one of her two kilns up to five times to reach a deep, rich color.

This meticulous attention to her work is fueled by a passion for what she does, a passion that has existed for as long as she can remember.

In 1961, when she was looking after her 18-month-old and pregnant with her second child, she started exploring the possibility of turning her interest into a career and selling her work. Her entry into the local art scene began by joining the San Jose Art League. She took advantage of the multiple workshops offered through the league and later capitalized on opportunities to study art abroad. She visited places like Sweden, while her husband was on a short relocation assignment with IBM, and Russia, where she lived for a month with a painter and sculptor in St. Petersburg.

Her artwork has since been displayed in public and private collections throughout the United States, Canada, Russia, France and Japan. And she has participated in artist exchanges and residencies in Russia, Japan and France. Her work is also displayed closer to home—her ceramic art mural is at the Willow Glen Library. And she's also been involved in the Willow Glen Beautification Project.

Kitty Mason has worked with Koepcke for six years on the beautification project. Mason says Koepcke's creativity and her vision meshes well with the community.

Mason owns several of Koepcke's ceramic bowls and two of her watercolors, which are in Mason's guest room.

"She was most generous in giving me several of the pictures to bring home to try in the room, with the décor," Mason says. "She is a very warm person."

Another project Koepcke has been devoted to is the Lifelines Project, which she and artist/friend Lois Stewart began in 1997. The purpose of the project is provide an avenue of expression for terminally ill cancer patients and their caregivers.

"I think there is something very remarkable about Nina," says Lifelines Project participant and poet Charlotte Muse. "She'll wheel and deal to get the money and materials for many worthy projects with a dedication that is very rare."

Muse remembers Koepcke coming to the Lifelines Project in clay-spattered jeans with her hair pulled back in a ponytail with "more energy than any six other people."

Muse openly admires Koepcke's artistic talent and says her favorite Koepcke pieces include a ceramic moose and bear.

"I think it will live after her," Muse says of Koepcke's art. "To everyone, she's unpretentious and approachable and kind."

Another fan of Koepcke's work is Esther Kamkar. Kamkar met Koepcke during her art residency at the Palo Alto School District, where she worked with several schools to create murals. Kamkar says she was impressed with the way Koepcke involved the students in every step of the mural-creating process.

"She is a fabulous teacher and also has the technical knowledge and skill for making a large piece of artwork a permanent element in the architecture of a school," Kamkar says.

Koepcke's talent and reputation has resulted in a plethora of art admirers. It is also why she can easily spend 10 to 12 hours a day— sometimes staying up all night—working on her sculptures to create new pieces for a patron's art collection, as well as her own.

She says, "It's important to have a creative outlet. I'm lucky to be able to do what I do."