Jean McLaughlin
Contemporary Curator
Ceramics utilizes clay, a mineral material that may be formed with bare hands or cast as slip. The plasticity of clay seems preternaturally suited to the potter’s hand and clay workers develop an intimate and interactive relationship with their material. Equally as important as the forming processes, the fire of the kilns profoundly changes the clay object and creates a metamorphosis as complete as that of a moth or butterfly emerging from its chrysalis. Each touch of the hand is registered in the clay—a highly influential characteristic. Clay artists are perceived by many as the crafts artists with the greatest humility perhaps because of this direct and influential marking.

Kathleen Mundell
Traditional Artists Curator
The South is one of the few regions of the country where traditional potters still dig their own clay. For example, The Hewell Family gets their clay sixteen miles from Gillsville, Georgia. Digging this clay, processing it, turning it by hand on the wheel, is paying homage to the way it’s been down before. There are no shortcuts. Like good cooking, each step is carefully executed. As Chester Hewell explains: “Working the clay is part of my history and the history of Georgia. We make the garden ware because we have to eat. But we make the old-timey ware because we love it.”