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Craft Artists Profiles
Red Vase by Ben Owens. Photo by Cedric Chatterley. “A goal for my work is to honor our family’s legacy while finding my own voice in clay. By magnifying the scale of a traditional shape I am challenged to design the form based on the space it will consume and the relationship to its environment.” Ben Owen III
Born into the nation’s oldest continuously-operating pottery tradition in Seagrove, Owen trained with his grandfather and father, was strongly influenced by Oriental designs, and received a BFA from East Carolina University. A cultural exchange program in Japan cemented his affection for Asian cultures, and these influences, along with his distinctive red glazes, remain an integral part of his pottery. Arising from humble, utilitarian traditions, his fine art pieces have since been commissioned as gifts for luminaries like Ronald Reagan, Elizabeth Taylor and Bob Hope. He has created University of North Carolina Lifetime Achievement Awards presented to recipients including James Taylor and the North Carolina Symphony. His recent commissions have included numerous large scale wood fired vases for The Umstead Hotel in Cary, the Ritz Carlton in Tokyo, Japan and an upcoming commission for the lobby of the Ritz Carlton in New York.
Highlands Basket by Billie Ruth Sudduth. “Through mathematics, color, pattern, and form, I have taken this object called a basket off the floor and onto a pedestal, an object to hold your interest, not your objects.” Billie Ruth Sudduth
After nearly two decades as a school psychologist, Billie Ruth Sudduth discovered her life’s work in basket making, which she learned at Craven Community College in New Bern and pursued full time after juggling family, work and craft for six years: “I took four Monday night mini-sessions on how to make an Appalachian Egg basket. The class cost twenty dollars. Who would have known what an impact it would have on my life?” Her professional experience with testing, measurements, statistics, and math served her well in her new pursuit, as she incorporated “Fibonacci numbers,” the proportions that occur in spirals throughout nature, into her basket designs. Sudduth has taught basket making at Penland School of Crafts and John C. Campbell Folk School, and has been featured in venues including the Mint Museum, the Asheville Art Museum, and the Smithsonian’s American Art Museum. Today it’s not uncommon for her Bakersville business, JABOBS (“Just a Bunch of Baskets”) to sell individual baskets for as much as $3,000–$5.000 each.
Detail of Carved Walking Stick by George SerVance. Photo by Cedric Chatterley.
George SerVance, Jr.
George SerVance, Jr. was a longtime worker at Thomasville Furniture Industries until he was sidetracked by a serious illness. It was during his recuperation that a recreational therapist learned of SerVance’s childhood interest in wood carving and making his own toys. His suggestion that SerVance carve a wooden doll rekindled that interest and sparked a new career—making unique carvings from maple and mahogany wood scraps discarded from area furniture industries. Known for the dancing dolls he has sold around Thomasville for more than 40 years, SerVance also carves slave figures, animals, walking sticks, Biblical figures, and other pieces. He received a 1993 North Carolina Heritage Award, and has demonstrated his craft at venues including the North Carolina Museum of History and Cameron Art Museum. His current project is a series of dancing dolls with elephant and donkey heads to coincide with the 2008 presidential elections. |
