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What Fires His Success
Written By: Donna Rhodes | Issue: 2016/05 - May
When Harry Hearne and his wife Julie aren’t on the road doing art shows, they are teaching at John Campbell Folk School or getting ready for their next education or exhibition adventure.
Living right down the road from Campbell in Brasstown/Murphy is a joy for Hearne. He’s right at home in a small town.
He knew early on he was meant for a simpler lifestyle. He’d joke, “When life gets too hectic, I’m going to drop out and become a potter.”
He had that turning point 25 years ago when his friends gave him four lessons in a ceramics class as a gag gift.
He took the class and says, “From the moment I touched the clay it was like I had been gone from home for a very long time long time, and I had just came back. There was a knowing, a bone deep kinesthetic knowledge of working with a wheel. It was tempting to think maybe I had done this in a former life.”
He finished the four classes, took several more, and moved on to a different teacher at a more sophisticated level. Somewhere down the line he graduated from glazing, stepping up to raku, a Japanese firing technique that darkens bisque by putting it directly in a fire. He liked its serendipitous result, though after many years of raku-ing he can pretty much control the outcome now.
Still, he gets a rush when the unexpected happens.
“It’s like I am given a wonderful gift when the glorious unforeseen materializes,” he says. “Sometimes, however, the gift is boring underwear and socks.”
Hearne is a member of the Southern Highlands Guild. His website is turningpointclaystudio.com. See him and his work firsthand at Smitten’s Third Thursday, May 19, from 5:00 P.M. until, at 468 Main Street in Highlands. You can also call at (828) 526-9300.
Hours are Monday through Thursday, 11:00 A.M. until 5:00 P.M.; Friday and Saturday 11:00 A.M. until; and Sunday, 1:00 to 5:00 P.M.
