Traditions cast in clay

RALEIGH -- Pottery is an established tradition in North Carolina, but an installation of more than 120 pieces at N.C. State University's Gregg Museum of Art & Design reminds us of its precarious history and its survival through more than 100 years in the hands of the Owen family.

The tradition faltered and had to be resuscitated in the early years of the 20th century by the now-legendary Jacques and Juliana Busbee, who founded what would become Jugtown Pottery near Seagrove in Randolph County.

They accomplished this by infusing vernacular forms with an awareness of Asian ceramic tradition, introducing silhouettes and glazes intended to move the wares beyond utility into the realm of art.

In 1959, Jugtown closed for two years until an associate of the Busbees reopened it and hired 19-year-old Vernon Owens, who was descended from a family of potters. The pottery was kept alive through the 1960s, when a nonprofit took it over; later, an apprenticeship program helped preserve the operation.

Owens acquired Jugtown in 1983. With his wife, Pamela, and two grown children, Travis and Bayle, he has carried its heritage into the 21st century. As the Gregg exhibition's catalog explains, North Carolina's two illustrious potter families, Owens and Owen, have the same ancestor.

Vernon's father, Melvin, added an "s" to the sign on his pottery to distinguish it from the other branch of the family. The Owens side has had 19 direct descendants working in clay over the past century.

On view in the exhibition are the many colors and forms of a type of pottery that represents the Jugtown look. Melon jars, Han jars and dragon vases pay homage to Asian prototypes.

The display shows Vernon Owens looking back at the work of his ancestors in a four-handled jar with rope decoration "in the style of J.H. Owen." The version Owens produced in 2004 is contrasted with the circa-1923 prototype pot by his grandfather.

The J.H. Owen pot itself is probably derived from a Persian prototype. While "imitating" its familial prototype, Vernon's pot has an assured elegance and sophisticated celadon glaze that refine the vocabulary.

A Jugtown aesthetic

We recognize a Jugtown pot, and that we recognize it means it adheres to a certain core aesthetic. Yet within that aesthetic, Vernon and Pamela Owens have created their own subtle variations.

Certain forms and glaze colors, such as a wonderful turquoise known as Chinese blue that can attain deep purplish-red accents from its manganese ingredient, are preserved. Maintaining these signature silhouettes and glazes to standard takes a great deal of effort, as the kiln log of Pam Owens demonstrates.

For variations within the signature shapes, Pamela Owens has made her mark with her own decorative flourishes, as in a teapot, its upper half ribbed and glazed in cobalt, or a salt-glazed bowl decorated with a pair of fish.

Two candlesticks by Vernon Owens in the pale blue glaze known as "clair de lune" (moonlight) rise like chalices into their candleholders. There are similar forms here, glazed in any number of varying colors, such as the rich red of "peach bloom" or the fittingly spotted, greenish-blue metallic "weathered bronze."

The insight gained is that within the realm of ceramics, different glazes create a different reading of the same form. In "clair de lune" glaze, a form can dissolve ethereally, while in "black ankle," the same shape can make a weighty pronouncement.

A golden tan salt glaze with mottled variations and drips from its lip becomes the perfect complement to Vernon's tall melon jar because its color and texture evoke the fruit from which its form derives.

The exhibition illustrates the consistency of throwing thousands of pieces of pottery throughout the years, each with an ease of execution, grace of form, and unique beauty that have never been compromised. That is certainly part of the family's extraordinary achievement.