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Today begins as all days do, with a ball of clay, and an openness to whatever may happen next. Nancy Jefferson's studio is a twelve by twelve wooden structure, built by a friend. This morning its windows, salvaged from houses facing demolition, are lifted like wings to let in the cool air. Here at Bluebird, the 10 acre north Florida wildlife refuge where Nancy lives and works, indoors and outdoors blend. The potter's Raku kiln stands unsheltered beside the compost bin that feeds a nearby vegetable garden. A fire pit is ringed with cinder blocks, their holes planted with flowers. Scattered in the gardens and beneath the grape arbor are pots in brilliant reds, crackled whites, and sea foam greens. Nancy expresses herself through her work. Words are secondary. What does she like about clay? “It's sensual,” she says, holding the clay, in her hands. Her first ncounter with the medium more than thirty years ago happened in a tobacco barn turned studio at the University of Kentucky. Nancy had come to take a drawing class but the space was shared by a pottery workshop. “As soon as I touched the clay, I knew,” she says. “Clay makes me feel good. It makes me smile.” Born into a socially prominent family in Lexington, Kentucky, Nancy can claim kinship with Thomas Jefferson. Her journey to becoming a master potter on a piece of wild land in North Florida was unlikely, but after the first encounter with clay, inevitable. She left college and Kentucky for the Florida Keys with her new husband Barry. Hooked on clay, she arrived armed with a thick stack of Ceramic Monthly and Studio Potter magazines, and the desire to be a potter-although she was unsure whether a career as a potter was possible. Then she learned that the mother of her landlord, who lived across the canal, was a potter. “I went over that day and every day.” For six months, Nancy learned the rudiments of her craft in her neighbor's studio. When Nancy and Barry moved away, Nancy bought her first wheel and set up a studio of her own under a stilt home that backed into the mangroves. Visited one day by owners of a pottery shop on Plantation Key, Nancy was persuaded to come to work for them. “At first I was very intimidated-I could barely center two pounds of clay at that time!” But for twenty-five dollars a day she did all gallery chores which allowed her to become an apprentice to resident master potters, Lee and Dorothy Shank, from whom she learned about kilns and clays and glaze chemistry. Visiting potters also taught at the shop regularly, sharing their expertise. These workshops increased Nancy's repertoire and helped her become an excellent teacher in her own right. A constant learner, Nancy left the Keys several times to travel to both the Penland School of Crafts in North Carolina, and Haystack Mountain School of Crafts, in Deer Isle, Maine to investigate craft and art. At both schools, she learned the Japanese technique of Raku firing, a method that continues to intrigue her. Nancy spent much of her leisure time in the Keys in or on the water, swimming and snorkling, windsurfing and piloting her sailfish. The turquoise waters of the Keys and their inhabitants became the inspiration for Nancy's distinctive Island pottery. Bold tropical fish swim through bright ceramic coral. Long legged wading birds and even the island-building mangroves adorn her pots. In 2004, Nancy followed friends from the Keys arts community who had migrated to North Florida, making her way to rural Wakulla County where she learned a whole new wild vocabulary. Still in love with the water and after kayak trips on the area's spring-fed rivers, her current work includes Raku logs topped with “committees” of slider turtles. Clay frogs cling to Nancy's version of the pitcher plants that spring from damp roadside bogs. And a “red dot” signature has evolved from sunrise excursions on the nearby Gulf of Mexico. Now certified as an official “Green Guide”, Nancy has become knowledgeable about the flora and fauna of North Florida. She is a conservation activist, giving back to the natural world that inspires her work. As a clay artist thirty years into the journey, Nancy continues to grow and evolve, and to push the boundaries of technique and medium. Now, as Nancy centers her clay on the wheel she explains her abiding love of what she does very simply. “Whatever is inside comes out.” What is “ inside” Nancy Jefferson is both beautiful and distinctive. Her pots are in collections all over the world-but Nancy is more interested in the next piece, the one taking shape beneath her hands. |
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