A Trip South to a Potter's Hollow
There is a town of some 300+ people near our Catskill house known as Potters Hollow and I have often wondered how it came by this name. I romanticize about turning this long forgotten and slightly disheveled village into a thriving community of active potters all turning out extraordinary fired forms and colors in a variety of functional ware. I started my artistic career in high school at a potter's wheel and pursued that craft by going to Alfred University. Sarah, too, explored pot making in high school. It still provides me with a foundation and connection to my sculptural and architectural interests, all deal with form, space, and concept in remarkably similar ways. So when Sarah and I decided to "do" something over my spring break from teaching, we concocted a plan to drive through the upper backbone of North Carolina in search of potters who seem salted in the woods. We want to discover both ceramic artists and functional production ware potters (like Jugtown), to discover what lineage still exists and may still be produced today.
We will spend a week traversing the state, first focusing on Asheville for a few days, with a day trip to Hickory NC to take in the 16th annual Catawba Valley Pottery Festival and then head to the Seagrove area, visiting individual studios along the way. We should end up in Raleigh at the home of an old Alfred friend, who also started his career as potter, then turned architect. This blog will record our trip and encounters along the way. As Sarah and I haven't spent much time in North Carlina, this should prove to be a memorable encounter. The state has an artistic tradition, being home to the Black Mountain School and Penland, as well as the plethora of ceramic artists (115 promise to be at the Catawba sale). We hope for a little warmer weather and some signs of spring along our travels in mountains that may well resemble our own Catskills.
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