Doug Dacey sculpting porcelain

You may have already read a short release that local artist Doug Dacey recently won Best in Show for his sculptural porcelain and pottery at LeMoyne Chain of Parks Art Festival in Tallahassee, Florida. If you attended the Blue Ridge BBQ Festival you may have seen some of his original creations in porcelain presented as trophies to the winners or heard him onstage with The Lone Derangers. I recently had the pleasure of touring his studio and getting a closer look at the broad spectrum of his creative endeavors over the years at his peaceful home in Green Creek.

What at first might appear to be a rustic country shack houses an impressive 85 cubic foot downdraft kiln propane fired with six forced air burners that achieve cone 11 in about 12-14 hours. Inside are shelves of pieces in various stages surrounding ample space for throwing and sculpting porcelain. The pure quality of the clay gives a smooth and polished finish to the surface of the various bowls, mugs, platters that fill the shelves. After admiring the array of lively colored vessels of various shapes and sizes I noticed his use of patterned texture on some of the pieces.

How do you make these designs?

It’s porcelain with a hint of copper for color.
He then pulls out a “Clairol hair color bottle” filled with the clay mix and demonstrates how he is able to paint the clay onto the surface of a bowl in smooth lines and patterns.

Are these the designs that won the award for you recently?
No, we’ll have to go upstairs for that.

When we do my eyes are greeted by large vessels that appear to be woven out of the clay.

How on earth did you create those shapes?

I actually weave slabs of clay together with a special folding technique I developed.
Did you learn that somewhere, or what gave you the idea for that?
I came up with it myself. I had been working on a piece that had warped when drying and as I was repairing it I was left with a leathery strip of unused clay and started playing with it to see if I could fold it together into something useful.

From that experiment the pieces had grown in size to elaborately wrapped vessels of various sizes and even wall hanging pieces that incorporated this new technique.
These were the pieces that caught the judges attention at the Florida festival with 125 jury selected artists from across the country. Ceramics rarely win this type of festival. Most often they focus on the two-dimensional “fine art” because that’s what is respected in the American art world. This time the judges actually knew something about pottery. At a festival like this I talk to many people and when the judges first came by they didn’t look any different than the other patrons. They were really interested in the technique and spent some time asking questions. When they came back with the clipboards I wasn’t sure if they were the same people I had talked to earlier and at this point they didn’t seem interested in talking or asking questions. I didn’t think I had a chance. My wife Karen and I debated not even going to the awards ceremony.

Karen: We sat this table and after ten merit awards, ten awards of excellence, and two judges choice awards it seemed everyone at our table had won an award and all that was left was the big one.

Doug: I had hoped for maybe one of the smaller awards and didn’t think I had a chance.

Karen: I wish I’d had a camera to capture his face when they called his name for Best of Show.

Doug: As a potter I don’t go to the festival for the awards. Usually the goal is to sell enough of the work to make a small profit. The award was a surprise.

How many shows do you travel to each year?

Doug: I’m a member of Southern Highlands Craft Guild, Piedmont Craftsmen Inc., and Carolina Designer Craftsman. All three guilds based out of North Carolina even though they are all regional guilds.

Karen: All three have annual shows and SHCG has two that provide a really good outlet for retail. Then he does about 6-8 others each year.

Which ones typically?

Doug: Sanford Pottery Festival in Sanford, NC. I was in Columbus, Ohio last weekend for Columbus Festival of the Arts. I go to Coconut Grove in Miami and the Boca Raton Museum Show.

Karen: Throughout the Eastern US his work is shown in galleries.

Doug: The Mint Museum in Charlotte, Museum of Natural History in Raleigh, Courthouse in Spartanburg, and Walt Disney offices in Orlando. Some of them are “purchase awards” from festivals. For instance the piece at Walt Disney, they allot a certain amount of money to purchase pieces for their offices as an award for the festival. I didn’t even know my piece was in the Courthouse in Spartanburg until a woman saw my wall pieces at a show and recognized it as the same work she’d admired on the wall while serving jury duty there.

Are you originally from this area?

Karen: We moved from Orlando, Florida to Columbia, SC for Doug’s graduate work. Then we befriended some folks at the 1978 Spoleto Festival from Green Creek.

Doug: We heard about an auction in 1979 for some property in the area. Karen went to the show while I came up here to bid. We had set a limit and I bid up to that point and then no one else bid.

Karen: We got the house and property for a song. This house is over 150 years old and was pretty deteriorated so after 28 years it’s still not finished. Doug lives by the Chinese proverb “Man finish house, man die.”

Doug: I intend to live a long time and earn the title “venerated potter.”

Did you plan to make a living as a potter?

Doug: I got my MFA from University of South Carolina in ceramics. I fully intended to make a living as a potter. I’d made that decision probably by the time I was done with University of Central Florida in Orlando earning a BFA in ceramics. At that time I was pretty dedicated to it and wanted to make my living as a ceramic artist. Thought it was doable.

After being an air traffic controller in army during Viet Nam I had the choice of keeping that as a career. That job is high stress though well paid, but I chose this direction because it was a more serene work environment.

Karen: He was working at lumber mill and dropped out of school for marine biology when a fork lift full of lumber smashed his foot. I was taking a pottery class and brought him in to throw a pot for something to do while he was recovering. Doug had fooled around with clay in junior college before the draft and sat down and threw a really good pot on the first try.

Doug: Karen looked at me and said “I hate you.”

Karen: I went on to study ceramics as well. However, I focused on jewelry pieces. We moved here with a year old son and I made porcelain jewelry on the side while being a full-time mom.

Doug: She was the art director of Outside In Studio in Spartanburg helping people with chronic mental illness and developmental disabilities. Now she’s the program director of Big Brothers Big Sisters in Polk County.

What would you tell an aspiring potter?

Karen: Get your teaching certificate.

Doug: No, I wouldn’t tell them that, but if you want to make a living first set realistic goals. There really aren’t American potters who acquire a lot of wealth. In Japan a kiln load may be worth a million dollars, but here ceramic artists especially are challenging the arts in general for respectability and still vying for a certain degree of recognition as an art form. Pottery is not just coffee mugs and bowls, though I make those. Also, I think there’s a certain inherent beauty in a functional piece that a person can use and interact with that piece of art on an every day basic. The large pieces become a focal point part and more of an architectural visual element. In the art community some people look at a bowl and think it’s demeaning to consider that art, but I think there’s something beautiful about having something as simple as a bowl that is also aesthetically pleasing. If you don’t enjoy making pottery don’t do it. It is not an easy way to make a living and requires self discipline. There’s nobody cracking the whip and telling you what hours to work to get your paycheck. When I’m in a work cycle I’m down in the studio every day because you have to pay attention to the process. There is always something that is at a different stage with the clay until the kiln load is ready and then there’s the glazing process. So its three to three and a half weeks before I really get a day off or “weekend,” but I may take an afternoon to play tennis or music.

I left wondering what the world would be like if everyone had as much pride and joy in their daily work. It was a pleasure to learn more about a couple of wonderfully community minded artists who call Polk County home. Locally you can find Doug’s work at Simply Irresistible Gallery or perhaps you’ll catch him in person singing and playing his guitar with The Lone Derangers.