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Earth, Water, Fire, & Soul
Written By: Jenny King | Issue: 2017/04 - April | Photograph By: Marjorie Christiansen Photography
Colette Clark is an artist in the truest sense of the word. Her talents and experience in the art world include stitching, quilting, painting (both oil and water based), drawing, and clay.
She says that clay has been the one constant over the last 50 plus years and this led her to become a volunteer at The Bascom’s Pottery Barn.
She was a ceramic and sculpture major at the University of Georgia, “Way back when.” Her husband is a former Marine so they found themselves constantly on the move, but she says, “I always had my hands in something art-related.”
After moving to Highlands 14 years ago, she immediately sought out The Bascom. At that time it was located in the Hudson Library on Main Street.
It was when Frank Vickery became the director of the ceramics program that her cursory volunteering at The Bascom became a serious commitment. Frank Vickery, currently the Director of Ceramics at The Bascom, was finishing his Master’s Degree at Western Carolina University and asked Colette if she would cover the barn in his absence. She says, “So I became a sort of fixture in the barn. If Frank wasn’t there, I was, and I was a lot of the times he was there.”
That was five years ago and she still spends a great deal of time at the barn by helping with instruction and assisting when there are large groups of students. She also helps in maintaining the space and ordering supplies, and generally assisting wherever she can.
She does have a studio at home so isn’t at The Bascom every day but says, “It’s where you’ll find me if I’m not at home.”
She encourages everyone to be a part of the Bascom, even if you don’t consider yourself an artist. “I’ve taken workshops, painting lessons, and even a wood turning workshop!” “There are so many opportunities at the Bascom,” she says enthusiastically. Clark says, “There are lots of new friends to be made and great art to be explored, all in the Bascom’s beautiful facility.”
For more information about The Bascom, A Center for the Visual Arts, visit TheBascom.org.
