Glazed Toward Glory

Artisan finds true calling in the clay

Not quite eight years ago, Dave Stephens traded his tree services for pottery lessons for his wife.

Her health wouldn't let her continue.

Prairie Grove

Clothesline Fair

WHEN — 8:30 a.m.-5 p.m. Saturday & Sunday; 8:30 a.m.-3 p.m. Monday

WHERE — Prairie Grove Battlefield State Park

COST — Parking on site is $5

INFO — Eve Smith at 751-5441 or acozarks.org

His immediate affinity for the clay wouldn't let him stop.

"The first time I sat down at the wheel, I was able to throw," he remembers with a tinge of awe still in his voice. "Usually most people take up to five years to get the hang of throwing. It just felt like I had done it before. I've always been good with my hands."

Stephens, who will show for the fourth time this year at this weekend's Prairie Grove Clothesline Fair, says he "grew up with a pencil in my hand."

"I actually had people want to set me up in business when I was in high school and right out of high school," he says of his skill with pen-and-ink drawings. "But I didn't think you could make a living that way."

Instead, "he had a tree service forever," moving to Arkansas from the Flagstaff, Ariz., area to help cousins start a ranch and sawmill near Waldron. Northwest Arkansas beckoned as the "most progressive area in the state," and he bought land near War Eagle to run cattle and start his own sawmill. But all the time, the art still called to him. He even added a studio to the house he built.

"It just collected junk," he says.

It took only a few years after Stephens started working in clay for it to take over his life. He ended his tree service career about two years ago and put that studio to use.

"I just quit," he says. "I kept saying, 'Some day, some day,' but some day never comes.

"Now," he says, "I do pottery and help my daughter with her art. It keeps me pretty busy.

"My pottery is not what you'd think of when you think of pottery," he struggles to describe it. "I took a class here and a class there, but mostly I'm self-taught. I do stuff that's very distinctly different from anyone else."

Stephens creates raku, a Japanese style of pottery made popular by its intense color and unusual patterning, and pierced pottery, in both functional and purely artistic designs. He doesn't make his own clay, but he does make his glazes which -- along with the size of his work -- are among the unique qualities that set it apart.

"I make functional pottery because my first instructor said you have to. I do much better on my decorative pieces because they are so unique," he says.

"Unique" is also a word Stephens uses to describe the Clothesline Fair, a collaboration among the Arts Center of the Ozarks in Springdale, the Prairie Grove Lions Club and Prairie Grove Battlefield State Park now in its 63rd year.

"It's kind of a social event," he says, "like these things often are in small towns. I like the interaction with the public. I like seeing faces light up, whether they can afford the pieces or not. I meet a lot of interesting people, and I've got a pretty good following who look for me there.

"I think it's a fun event."

NAN What's Up on 08/29/2014

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