He calls himself the Black Potter…
“The pot is the man: his virtues and his vices are shown therein—no disguise is possible.”
~Bernard Leach, potterJim Mc Dowell, who calls himself “the Black Potter,” believes himself to be the only black potter who creates face jugs based on both his family traditions and his sacred ancestral tradition of using face jugs as grave markers. He’s been a studio potter for about 30 years and has been creating face jugs for nearly 20.
Born in Norfolk, Virginia, a great-great-great-great nephew of a woman named Evangeline, a village slave potter in Jamaica; great-grandson of a tombstone maker from Gaffney, South Carolina; and son of a self-taught artist, James T. McDowell, Sr., Jim came of age in Washington, D.C, during the struggles for Civil Rights. A severe hearing loss gave him trouble in school so he left to join the Job Corps and later began working in the coal mines of Kentucky. A Viet Nam Era-vet stationed in Ansbach, Germany. Jim began to pray during difficult times and found a spiritual relationship with God. He changed his thoughts about killing and when he told this to his commanding officers, they assigned him to operate the craft shop on base.
Jim wanted to use the pottery wheel and kiln he found there and teach others to do the same, but he had to learn it himself first. He heard about German potters in Nurenmberg and went there on leave to find them. He didn’t speak German and they didn’t speak English but they let him observe their work, clean up the shop, and load the wood fired kiln, which he especially loved. He visited a few times and took what he learned back to Ansbach, practicing on the wheel until he was good enough to give lessons.
After eight years in the military, Jim went back to the coal mines, but continued to make pots. With his first big paycheck he bought a wheel, an electric kiln, a thousand pounds of clay, and set up shop in his basement, eventually moving to a small studio. After 20 years in the mines, this time in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, the only location he could find that hired black men, he left mining for good to produce pottery full time.
While yet a miner, Jim believed God called him to ministry and began studying with the pastor of a small black church near Johnstown. After two years of theological mentoring under his pastor, the National Baptist church ordained him. While he occasionally preaches as a guest speaker, most often at an area Mennonite church, Jim does not participate in any one church but believes his ministry is primarily his pottery.
As an older adult, Jim also earned an associate degree in art from Mt. Aloysius College, but it did not include pottery studies. In this area he is almost completely self-taught. Jim is an Artist-in-Residence with Southern Alleghenies Museum of the Arts, and through its residency programs teaches pottery and the arts in public and private schools, and in hospitals through its Arts in Healing program.
In addition to making pots, Jim enjoys sky diving, singing, playing the guitar, trumpet, and cello. He is an avid reader and enjoys life to the fullest. He is always ready for a new adventure.
His motto quotes Daniel Rhodes, also a potter: “Earth, water, fire…these are the ingredients of pots and human beings alike, and each formula contains an element of chance. Do not seek perfection in pots or people, for your search will be unrewarded, and you will miss knowing many good pots and good people.”
Ugly Jugs
“Beauty is not on the surface, but rather comes from within the form.”
~David Shaner, potterJim made his first “ugly” face jug in 1983 after seeing one created by a white potter, only, remembering that his ancestor Evangeline made face jugs, Jim made his with black features. Later he learned about the literate slave potter Dave from Edgeville, South Carolina, and, to honor him, began inscribing messages on his face jugs like Dave did on his pots. Jim began to pour all his stored up emotions about slavery, his share-cropper ancestors, Civil Rights, discrimination he experienced in the mines and the military, religious beliefs, and more into the face jugs.
His hand printed words are the final touch on each face jug, another way of keeping a spiritual connection to each jug. Usually on the left side of the jug’s back, he writes an anti-slavery message, and on the right side a message for today. Regardless of the glazing and firing processes yet to come, Jim considers the pot complete once he has carved his words into the clay. However, when a face jug emerges from the kiln, Jim gives each a name related to its apparent personality, message, and characteristics.
The Wood Kiln
“A life, centered in clay, until the last firing.”
~Michael Cardew,potterJim owns gas and electric kilns but prefers to fire his pots and face jugs in a wood kiln. He is a master at wood firing and has supervised many firings at other potters’ kilns. He is in the process of building his own wood kiln called a groundhog kiln and plans to eventually fire everything he makes this way. He’ll be able to load the kiln with six or seven hundred pots at one time so he’ll invite other potters to fire as well. Using this method, the firing takes an average of 16 to 18 hours, with the fire under constant scrutiny and tending. He intends to do some single firings in the kiln as well. This takes about 24 hours and, while it’s a delicate and difficult process, he tells why it’s worth it to fire a pot this way: “When it goes in the kiln, you haven’t baked the life out of it yet.” He never fires his pots in a sager, a method of firing pots placed inside a closed container within a wood fire, because he sees it as too controlled with no elements of surprise.
Jim’s thoughts on wood kiln firing
“The essential idea is that the quality of the result is continually at risk during the process of making.”
~David Pye, potter
“Firing pottery in a wood kiln is the most connected you can be to the pot. It’s not a given, it’s a struggle. You are the injector of fuel. I love it because it’s the final thing you can do to the pot where you have no control. You consign the pot to the fire. You have the ash that melts on the pots, the glaze, the fire, the serendipitous thing that happens that will never happen again…the wind depositing fire all through the kiln from the different wood types...colors, patterns, shapes finding their way onto the pots. You have no idea what’s going on inside.
“The most exciting thing about the wood fire is the process of starting the fire. It must start out slowly to gradually warm the kiln…eight to ten hours heating the brick. Once the brick gets hot it’s like feeding a dragon and you keep on feeding. You hear the roar of the fire inside the kiln…it’s a 40-50 foot solid sheet of flame with a tall column of flame shooting out the chimney, crackling and exploding…it’s exciting and the hardest work you’ll ever do…your clothes can catch on fire…your eyebrows get singed. You are sleep deprived and you don’t care. You have months of work in there and you can’t mess it up. Once you got the cones dropping you’re kind of relieved. You brick it up and let it burn on its own and sit there for hours and listen to the kiln. It’s like Christmas to me when I open a kiln after a wood firing…it’s better than Christmas.”
