Immersion: Going to the Fair

Early morning drive to the Catawba Valley Pottery Festival

One focus of the North Carolina trip is to attend the Catawba Valley Pottery Festival that attracts over 100 mudslingers and art potters from the region. This annual event is held in the Hickory Convention Center, a spot located in the heart of NC midway between the two pottery hubs of Asheville, in the western part of the state, and Seagrove three hours to the east.  It is also home to the famous Hickory Furniture Mart, a mecca for anyone shopping for discounted brand name American furniture. Where we are told that families can buy home loads of furniture at a fraction of the price and have it shipped to their own doorstep.  We didn’t venture into that territory, but did go to the Convention Center to look at the potters’ wares. 

Mark Hewitt (center) at his booth

The Festival is a typical two-day event, with anxious buyers shelling out a $40 entry fee to attend a preview party on Friday so they can select choice pots from the vendors.  The rest of us come in for $6 on Saturday for a day of looking at pots - to mill about, rummage and marvel at the range of special individuals that spend their hours making clay forms, many using local clay and traditional techniques to express their idea of craft and/or function. There were only a few production potters, of the kind that have old apple crates filled with cups, mugs, plates, pie plates, casseroles and bowls, priced by form and function.  Their work is done within the tradition of hand made but fast and efficient production ware. Much of the work is functional, well made and reasonably cheap. Most of the work is what I would call the North Carolina tradition of potters.  These are individuals who have embraced the techniques developed in the state over generations that manifest in the specific functional forms, local clay bodies and wood fire salt glazes.  A good bit of this burgeoning craft surprisingly came from a British transplant to this area, Mark Hewitt, a 30-year veteran of the region. He has produced his own brand of traditional ware and art pottery and has an active apprentice program.  He employs a few young potters at a time who study his process, learn his technique and absorb the aesthetics and forms in his style. They help with production in the guild tradition. After a few years they strike out on their own, integrating and adapting the Hewitt program and process into their own craft.  We encountered a few of these potters at the Festival including Matt Jones, Alex Matisse, and Seth Guzovsky.  Collectively this energy has gone a long way to revitalize and influence the current interest in North Carolinian ceramics.  Matt Jones was the guest speaker at the event and spoke about being part of a living NC tradition of craft that absorbs the cultural and relational aspect of making along with the beauty of form and the tradition of process.  Matt is known for his blog where he has provoked a spirited dialogue with the kingpin of art pottery promotion, and one time New York gallery owner, Garth Clark.  The two have sparred back and forth to an appreciative audience in both realms, including a few live dialogues in the region last fall. 

Matt Jones booth

From all signs at the Festival, things are going well as the economy picks up just a bit for the region and it’s cohort of craftsmen and women who are willing to work hard and carry on an adventurous spirit. We were struck by the open ended question of what might happen over time, and moved by the dedication of the folks we met in the River Arts studios of Asheville, though it’s hard to see how they can make enough money to pay home and studio rents. Yet, in comparison to the waitresses, fellows working early shifts at Denny’s and the local pub crew, it is heartening that so many are so willing to give it a try.

We thought we might satiate our appetite for pots in this day long feast, but we have seemingly only whetted our appetites, and more finely focused our attention, opened our own dialogues between forms, function, relationships, and culture. It is just a touch strange for us to find ourselves in the “collector” category here, not the “maker” one.

The car rides are speckled with observations of the hills, the vernacular rectangular church structures with white steeples stuck on top, and the deeper matters of what supports the people who are making craft with such intention in these days.  Our route took us to Black Mountain, the town and the Mountain, whose fame in our view comes from the school, which is no longer extant. The village is rife with craft shops and beer pubs, a residue in a way of what was once an active serious art community. Though there was lots of work in the shops, there is no direct lineage left there.

Our dinner at the Stone Bowl

Our evening came to a delicious end (after scarfing down peanut butter sandwiches for lunch in the convention center parking lot), as we found The Stone Bowl, a totally worthy Korean restaurant in South Asheville.  Nice name, hunh? Then we went home and unpacked our pots!