John Whitman
In 1984 I spotted a newspaper article about a Southern Indiana potter, Tom Marsh; the article included a photo of Mr. Marsh in which he was flanked by a couple of pots, each almost as big as he. The man appeared quietly self assured, completely at ease, but the pots!
I had never seen such vessels. Their size was impressive, but their size alone didn’t account for my reaction. Was it the dancing lip? the sensuous curve of the belly? the seemingly ever-expanding volume? It was all of these, and also some quality for which I didn’t have a name, which couldn’t be tallied. These pots had a strength a potency which seemed to accrue from something other than the sum of their parts; they had presence.
I was smitten. Long hours of untutored frustration at the potter’s wheel of a local community center were followed by long hours of gently guided frustration at the wheel of a local pottery. I then experienced four years of intensive training in all aspects of clay work at the University of Houston, under the tutelage of Henry Lienau and Huey Beckham. In 1988 I started making pots professionally, at my workshop: Twin Pines Pottery.
My goal has always been to make pottery that has presence.
