Fine hand-thrown pottery made in Tennessee

“One can never separate a work from the artist...the creator informs the work out of the rich material in his or her own soul.” *

Who would have thought that being a shy girl from the deep South would become “rich material” in my soul for creativity?  The many hours of solitude in the woods and fields around my home in Stone Mountain, Georgia was an incubator for my love of reflection on nature, meaning and purpose.  A true understanding of meaning and purpose had eluded me for many years.  Many teachers and friends along the way recognized my artistic abilities and encouraged me. Mid-life, now, has been a time of evaluation,once again, on meaning and purpose.  As I reviewed my life I grieved the opportunities that were given me and not used to the fullest.  An education at the University of Georgia and art studies abroad in Italy, although wonderful opportunities, were mostly wasted by a young woman in search of some elusive something else.

Over the years I have enjoyed water color painting, calligraphy, teaching art, and I also owned my own sign business for 10 years specializing in hand lettering.  I fell in love with creating wheel-thrown clay vessels originally in 1977 while living in Okinawa, but it wasn’t until 1998 that I renewed that passion.  I now operate my studio, Adamah Pottery near my home in Evensville, TN.

“Meaning and purpose” which I had pursued, were really there all along.  It is said that Georges Rouault, the French painter, painted not for public approval, but for an audience of One. That is the new perspective that brings purpose, meaning and joy to my work and life now. 

My work is to create beautiful objects with a simple purpose that are quiet, functional, without embellishment or unnecessary decorative distraction, designed to serenely complement, not compete with the offerings they hold.  That also is a description of the vessel into which I am being formed.

Dawn Johnson Raburn

*quote by William Edgar