Karen Gringhuis on fri 21 aug 98
Everyone's points about Seagrove pottery are mostly well taken,
especially Campbell's that good work can be just down the road from
bad. That's life. I have friends is Seagrove doing EXCELLENT work,
NOT folk pottery but excellent. ( Genthithes, Gholson, Henneke,
Johnson, McCandless among them in alpha order.)
Visiting Seagrove last May, one thing absolutley knocked my sox
off - The INCREDIBLE promotion effort by the State of North
Carolina on behalf of Seagrove. When was the last time you saw
presumably state funded signs on the Interstate directing you to
"POTTERY - NEXT SIX EXITS"??!! The publicity just doesn't quit.
All those tourists didn't just wake up one morning and say "I
think I need a pot." They got the word over and over again
thru brochures, signs, etc. much of which start at the State line.
much of it paid for by the GOVERNMENT - imagine that.
Regardless of what we think of the actual work, the SUPPORT given
these INDIVIDUAL potters (this is NOT megabuck Mall of America
sales tax $$)is OUTSTANDING It appears to be a state wide
effort & to extend way beyond pottery. If every state supported
its local artists/craftspeople liek this......"IMAGINE all the
pots."
We'll never protect the public from bad work but a rising tide
floats all boats. And I for one would LOVE to have this kind
of state and local support behind me.
And if you get as far as Seagrove, North Carolina is lousy w/
good potters all over the state. Karen Gringhuis
lpskeen on sat 22 aug 98
Karen Gringhuis wrote:
>
> Visiting Seagrove last May, one thing absolutley knocked my sox
> off - The INCREDIBLE promotion effort by the State of North
> Carolina on behalf of Seagrove. When was the last time you saw
> presumably state funded signs on the Interstate directing you to
> "POTTERY - NEXT SIX EXITS"??!! The publicity just doesn't quit.
The state put up those signs after the uproar the potters threw when the
bypass was built. That highway (US220, soon to be I-73 I think) is the
major route to the beaches and has been forever. Before the bypass, it
was a 2-lane road with a 55mph speed limit and you couldn't go anywhere
without going through Seagrove, which helped build business down there.
The bypass, as its name implies, goes AROUND Seagrove, and the potters
were (justifiably, IMHO) worried about lost business, since most traffic
would no longer be coming right past their front doors, so the state put
up the signs. They're the same brown color as other historical markers
in other places across the state.
--
Lisa Skeen ICQ# 15554910
Living Tree Pottery & Soaps
http://www.uncg.edu/~lpskeen
"We will have to repent in this generation not merely for the hateful
words and actions of the bad people, but for the appalling silence of
the good people." -- Dr. M. L. King, Jr. 4/16/63
lpskeen on sat 22 aug 98
Karen Gringhuis wrote:
> And if you get as far as Seagrove, North Carolina is lousy w/
> good potters all over the state.
Which was my entire point when I made that rant last week. There's good
stuff and bad stuff in Seagrove as in any other place, but because
Seagrove is what it is, everyone seems to assume that if you make pots,
you're from Seagrove. It just ain't so, and that assumption is what
irks me. There are probably just as many potters in Guilford county
(Greensboro area), but we don't have commercial potteries set up for
whatever reason.
--
Lisa Skeen ICQ# 15554910
Living Tree Pottery & Soaps
http://www.uncg.edu/~lpskeen
"We will have to repent in this generation not merely for the hateful
words and actions of the bad people, but for the appalling silence of
the good people." -- Dr. M. L. King, Jr. 4/16/63
Mert & Holly Kilpatrick on sat 22 aug 98
At 09:29 AM 8/21/98 EDT, you wrote:
>----------------------------Original message----------------------------
....
>All those tourists didn't just wake up one morning and say "I
>think I need a pot." They got the word over and over again
>thru brochures, signs, etc. much of which start at the State line.
>much of it paid for by the GOVERNMENT - imagine that.
>
Just want to point out that the government can't give without taking first.
from working people, i.e., "much of it paid for by the TAXPAYERS." I get
uncomfortable with the idea that there is some beneficent entity out there
with a lot of money to spend for us.
Holly
Mert & Holly Kilpatrick
in the Slate Belt, East Bangor, PA
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