Action at Rising Fawn

Rubynelle Counts at Rising Fawn Appalachian Artist & Craftsman Series Action at Rising Fawn In the Special Issue just preceding this one writings by Charles Counts appeared with almost none of his pottery or other craft and art work. In that issuehe explained how he had moved through his life and education and finally settled at Rising Fawn, Georgia, and established his pottery shop. He and his wife, Rubynelle, have expanded the activities to include mosaic, batik, and quilt designs (which are executed by local women). In addition to stints of teaching, Charles Counts with the photographer, Bill Haddox, journeyed through the southern highlands and the Piedmont interviewing and photographing those who worked in clay. The result was Common Clay, a handsome, limited edition book that both tells and shows. It is the purpose here to let Charles Counts tell and let the pictures available show as best they can some of the vigor and variety of this artist and craftsman. 38 CREDO I have a friend who quotes the mythical Lobsang Sechen: "Men believe they succeed in their time solely by their own virtue (strength) and knowledge. Not so; they stand on the shoulders of the ten million dead." As I think and work as a potter, I find that word making and organizing is a difficult form of expression for communicating what I feel about the craft. I believe in making pots for people to use. I believe that function is a valid need inherent in the objects with which a man surrounds himself. It has been important in the past and I find it today an exciting challenge and involvement. I believe in working with hands. Doing simple, everyday kind of work. The clay responds, sometimes directly, sometimes with a struggle. But never the same way. I try to remain sensitive to its surprises. Working at the potter's wheel is a ritual. Pottery making is a contemplative occupation and through its processes from idea to clay to finished object tested by the fire I find myself and lose myself. Such simple work in our times seems a paradox. Why would one want to make a simple mug by hand when automated machines can produce hundreds in an hour? There is no answer to such rigid logic except that a man can develop and becomes himself through a process. And simply and directly a man can be efficient enough to BE economically independent (free) even in the face of such automation. And a man can choose even in an instant to use his sensitivity and judgement. The machine is programmed and can not change its idea. 39 In the potter's process one understands media and the use of it. Design and a feeling for the order of things on this planet and in the universe become a part of his thoughts as he works. A potter relates to his times and becomes a part of his times. He can become integrally aware and in his media he can express his thoughts. Our times need such contemplation, such expression. 40 STATEMENT from a craftsman for a Bank in Cornelia, Georgia Things, things, things! the accumulation of things in even a short lifetime overwhelms. To be a maker of things in our time puts one in a dilemma: for a craftsman's job is to make things well to use and to hold, to reflect ones needs and aspirations. There is no need to make to supply only the need. For machines and mass production have yielded a surplus; "supply and demand"—a term meaningless to a hand-craftsman : in plastic and paper and synthetic materials though not always the "synthesis" of an idea. This is the notion: A synthesis of the idea made real, becoming an object to use, to love and reflect upon. To project and infuse our lives with a sense of value. In the avalanche . . . and onslaught of things in our time one would only hope to simplify, to capture the essence ofan idea in the humility and glory of wool or clay or whatever material oneselfand senses might through-flow. A form for our time? An expression oflife's forces in our work? Sometimes...