One of the books featured in Ceramic Monthly’s 2020 annual yearbook is Henry Glassie’s biography “Daniel Johnston: A Portrait of the Artist as a Potter in North Carolina.”  The book invites readers to experience the evolution of a master craft artist over the course of many years.Beware, Glassie’s book delves deep into the lineage of and linkages between members of the Seagrove, North Carolina ceramics community, a topic perhaps tedious for some readers

But it also details Johnston’s most recent monumental project, a permanent installation at the North Carolina Museum of Art. The project required Johnston to engineer and construct heavy duty wheels on a scaffold as well as an oversized kiln in order to make 178 wood fired pillars standing between just inches and to over six feet tall.  “I’m ready to move on, and I’m not scared about the world. It’s wide open,” Glassie quotes him as saying towards the end of the book.

Johnston’s discovery of his own abilities is inspirational, maybe even for us every day potters struggling with a bigger shape or new technique.

Signed Copies of Glassie’s book are available with a stein or mug made by Johnston for $100, perhaps the perfect gift for your favorite potter. (Or yourself!)