Jackie Seaton - Bowling for Community
By Sally Hansen
Since 1980 Jackie Seaton has flourished as a rural potter working out
of his home studio near Perth. His approach to pottery is characteristic
of his general pragmatic approach to life. He produces functional, sturdy
stoneware items designed for everyday use in the kitchen and the garden.
The artistic challenge Jackie Seaton sets himself is to perfect traditional
shapes. "I like to make pots that people recognize; I don't dream
up new shapes and abstract objects," he tells me as I admire the
many items in visible use in his own country kitchen in a century-old
former general store near Perth. His unusual salt-glaze kiln is housed
a few steps away in a large barn-shaped outbuilding, and I recall with
late-winter nostalgia the abundant gardens that greeted me when I visited
his studio last Thanksgiving during the annual Perth Autumn Studio
Tour.
The Formative Years
Surprisingly, Seaton credits his four summers at the National Music
Camp at Interlochen, Michigan, with engendering his lifelong love
for making pottery. Ostensibly there to study the cello, he was
irrevocably seduced by the high level of instruction in both sculpture
and pottery making. When he finished high school he had the "extremely good fortune to study with Val Cushing" (renowned
potter and educator at Alfred University in NY) ... "an intense experience
which eventually led me into the world of ceramics."
Between 1964 and 1972 Seaton completed his education in the Humanities
at Glendon College in Toronto, worked for two years as a research assistant
to the NDP Caucus at Queen's Park, and finally went on to postgraduate
work at York University, receiving a Masters Degree in Victorian Studies.
As the Wheel Turns
In 1973, potter's wheel in tow, Jackie Seaton moved to Vancouver
determined to try life as a craftsman. Seeking an apprenticeship
position, he had the great good fortune to fall into a co-operative
situation with a group of ten full-time professional potters. His
two years at Vancouver Clayworks proved to be an invaluable technical
and real world experience. "Among
other things, we were able to build a salt glaze kiln at a time when there
were almost no books on the subject for guidance, and when almost no one
in Canada was practising salt glaze production in a studio setting."
Upon his return to the east in 1976, he spent four years firing his
pottery in others' kilns before settling into the wonderful home and
studio near Perth where he works today. As he shows me his self-built
salt glaze kiln almost thirty years later, his pleasure in his chosen
lifestyle is palpable. Salt glazing is particularly appropriate for
Jackie's durable stoneware pieces that are oven, microwave and dishwasher
safe, and often outlive the kiln they were fired in - he has to rebuild
his kiln every ten years on average. He tells me he still likes the
throwing part the best - the time actually spent at the potters wheel
turning hundreds of individual pieces by hand, and that he enjoys the
production aspect. "It becomes almost a meditative thing, and
the last five pieces are always the best."
Bowling for Community
But most importantly, Jackie Seaton tells me he has achieved his
lifelong goal of "integrating what I do with my hands with my ideas about community." As
a solo craftsman, he truly values the camaraderie of the vital craft community
surrounding Perth. He has been an integral force in establishing two successful
artists' marketing co-operatives which today, in conjunction with another
co-operative venture, The Perth Autumn Studio Tour, sell nearly 100% of
the pottery he produces. These are Riverguild Fine Crafts in Perth
and Cornerstone Fine Art / Fine Crafts in Kingston.
In Bowling, Striking Out Is Good!
Seaton doesn't just sell his bowls; he gives them away. Each year
as part of his outreach to pottery crafters, Seaton invites a senior
student from Sheridan College or Nova Scotia College of Art and
Design (NSCAD) to join him in his home and studio for ten weeks.
When a NSCAD student introduced Seaton to the worldwide "Empty Bowls" project
three years ago, Jackie expanded his communal horizons.
"The hunger and homelessness in our community is shameful!" He
tells me that in a community of 6,000 people, on any given night twenty
kids are on the streets of Perth for one reason or another. He set
out to produce 300 bowls to raise funds for Perth's Food Bank and its
Youth Centre (YAK).
With a publicity boost from CTV, his Empty
Bowls project took off,
and with the help of local restaurants, volunteers and supporters such
as Ed and Lucille Broadbent, over $20,000 has been donated to these vital
organizations in two years.
This year Jackie spent Christmas producing another 500 bowls with the help
of a visiting potter from Hong Kong. Fu Choi-ting, a student in ceramics at
Sheridan College in Oakville, volunteered her time over the school winter break
to help him prepare for the 2004 event. She hopes to return to Perth to help
out with Empty Bowls during the Festival of the
Maples on Saturday, April 24th
when local restaurants will participate again by donating soup for the bowls
she and Jackie have made.
In Jackie's words, "Donors get to eat the delicious soup and keep
their handmade bowl as a permanent reminder that good food is not only
a pleasure but a basic right of each and every member of our community,
regardless of age or circumstance".
Readers can write to
Jackie Seaton at js@superaje.com to receive an annual Empty Bowls
newsletter. Be
sure to stop in at his studio during the Perth Autumn Studio Tour over Thanksgiving
weekend, October 9-11.
