Don Lewis, Mountain Potter

Michael Daniel The Potter Pot (salt glazed, 20" high) 42 Appalachian Artist & Craftsman Series Don Lewis, Mountain Potter by BENNIE LEE SINCLAIR This article was done on request for two good reasons: the life-style developed by these two, working mountain artists and their art and craft. It is obvious that they live—and wish to live—quietly and privately in their unspoiled natural setting. They do not sett or "commercialize" in any way at their home in order to maintain this privateness and serenity. "The Apprentice" (copyrright 1971 by Bennie Lee Sinclair) is reprinted from her book Little Chicago Suite, The Drummer Press. Recently, Don Lewis became one of twelve American potters whose work was included in the 34th International Exhibition of Contemporary Ceramic Art in Faenza, Italy, a singular achievement for a livelihood artist. "The thing that pleased me most about Faenza", he says, "is that I selected pieces from my regular production to send ... I didn't try to do any "art" project". Evidently die international jury of ten who selected the show agreed that the simplicity of form and unique salt-glaze that has evolved from the master potter's fifteen years as a full-time professional are exceptional. Don Lewis' large, two-story studio is a one-man building project that sits on 127 acres of mountain land a few miles from Cleveland, S. C. — the nearest post office. It is heated by a couple of thermostatcontrolled wood heaters, and the gravityflow water supply comes from a spring sixteen hundred feet further up the mountain. When he's not making pots, there are wood-cutting and building chores, and gardening in summer — self-sufficiency being one of the keys to earning a living as a potter. When I first met Don Lewis I was eighteen years old, impressionable and full of dreams, and I thought he was the most independent person I had known. Now, after eighteen years of marriage, I am still amazed at his independence and how that trait has also shaped his career as a potter and helped to make many of our dreams — to spend our best energies and time with our chosen work of potting and writing; to have our own wildlife and wildplant sanctuary in a wilderness area — possible. Don was born, in 1935, in the American Spinning Company mill village, in the foothills town of Greenville, S. C, in an era of hard times. A few years later, when 43 Bennie Lee Sinclair Don Lewis, Five Sts his parents had separated, he and his younger brother Larry lived for a while in a Salvation Army Orphanage, and then in the South Carolina State Crippled Children 's Home, victims of polio and rheumatic fever. Don suffered a withered right arm as a result of the polio, but a "miracle" was in the making when he and his mother and brother went to live with his grandparents . "My grandfather made a 'toy' for me — a button on a string — and insisted that I exercise my bad arm every day. Eventually, my arm began to develop again". The grandfather was a carpenter, and Don was allowed to tag along on jobs and help. Today, there is almost no aspect of building he can't handle, just from what he remembers of those days. The day he turned sixteen, Don went to work at the Southern Worsted Mill in Greenville, and continued there until he finished high school. Then it was a threeyear stint in the Marine Corps, where he was an aerial photographer and earned the; es, Throwing a Pot rank of sergeant. We met when he enrolled at Furman University on the G.I. Bill, were married and continued our education by working at more part-time jobs than I care to remember. Don was majoring in biology, planning to become a veterinarian , when a two-week workshop with potter Charles Counts was offered. We had recently seen an impressive exhibit of pottery , and Don was curious about the techniques in making it. He signed up for the course, and the fact that he was able to immediately "center" the clay and "throw" a fair-shaped pot the first time...