About Fork Mountain Pottery
Fork Mountain Pottery is the culmination of the dreams of two incredibly talented, inspired, and driven potters; Suze Lindsay and Kent McLaughlin.
Suze and Kent found each other when they were teaching assistants for Cynthia Bringle for a summer workshop at Haystack Mountain School of Craft in 1991. After much written correspondence, they agreed to meet again at Penland School of Craft in 1992. Kent left his studio practice in Cocoa, Florida to work at Penland, excited to be a part of the historic craft school. After being accepted in Penland’s renowned artist in residence program, Suze followed. Both potters trained at Penland and enjoyed a long and healthy relationship with the school. Their love of Penland, the surrounding craft community, and the mountain ridges near Roan Mountain led them to aspire to build a home and studio nearby. Fork Mountain Pottery was born in 1996.
Kent was superbly gifted, unassuming, giving, resourceful, handsome, intelligent, friendly, charming, adventurous, creative, fun, kind and loving.
He led a life of fullness and abundance. Things came naturally to him. He loved to share his knowledge - talking pots, building kilns, developing glazes and making true connections wherever he went. His pots were effortless and he talked about them in a humble, easy way. Kent was a prolific tinkerer and used his extensive skills and boundless craftsmanship to renovate their farmhouse, to build their studio, and to design and build both salt and reduction kilns.
Kent was known for working in both stoneware and porcelain clays fired in gas reduction kilns. He used traditional glazes, including celadons, shinos, iron reds, and warm yellows. Using his own hand made deer tail brushes and wax resist, he layered glazes in patterns and generous broad strokes of the brush. For several years, his curious nature had him using waste oil burners on his gas reduction kiln and he even taught a Penland concentration class focusing on this approach. Kent taught at numerous art centers and universities including Haystack Mountain School of Crafts, Penland School of Craft, Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts, Anderson Ranch Art Center, University of NC, Pembroke, Jingdezhen Ceramic Institute- China, and Curaumilla Art Center- Chile.
In April of 2021 Kent was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and despite extensive chemotherapy treatments and the prayers of his family and his many, many friends, he succumbed to this aggressive cancer in August of 2021.
It was always Kent’s dream to create a scholarship specifically for studio potters who make they living selling their work. The Kent McLaughlin Scholarship at Penland School fully funds the recipient’s attendance at a workshop and also provides a stipend to offset the recipient’s time away from their studio. With tremendous support from his family and from the community that loved him, Kent’s dream was realized and his scholarship was established and awarded for the first time in 2022.
Suze’s focus is on creating altered pottery forms that are good companions for daily use. That use can range from a mug for your first cup of coffee in the morning to lighting the candelabra for an intimate dinner.
An integral part of her work includes surface decoration to enhance pottery form by patterning and painting slips and glazes for salt firing. She makes things to entice the user to take pleasure in everyday activities, inviting participation, promoting hospitality.
Suze’s entrance to the world of craft started in New Orleans when she was working as a teacher in the public school system after completing a degree in special education at Penn State and receiving a Montessori teaching certificate. She began her journey as a hobby potter, taking classes at a rec center one day a week, inspired by a potter at a local craft show. She was encouraged to take a summer workshop at Penland School of Craft, where she humorously remembers her first teacher telling her not to quit her day job, when she shared her dreams to have a career as a studio potter! Providentially, she applied for and was accepted as a two year CORE fellow (1987- 1989) at Penland School of Craft. She followed this up with a MFA from Louisiana State University. Her studio practice was bolstered after completing three years as an artist in residence at Penland School. She and Kent worked together to build Fork Mountain Pottery and their work and lives intertwined, grew and thrived for twenty five years. Suze continues her life as a studio potter, forging ahead despite the loss of her beloved partner.
When she is crafting pots, she subtly suggests figure and character by manipulating forms after they are thrown. She rolls out clay slabs and uses them to hand build elements that are then assembled with thrown parts to create pieces that have a personality of their own. Suze likes to experiment and play with form and proportion on functional ware by altering and stacking parts. When she decorates the surfaces with slips and glazes, she is very interested in making the marks and designs enhance the volume of each pot. She is inspired by historical pots from many cultures, including Japan, Crete, Chile, China, and native North American. The pots she responds to may be a quirky Pre-Columbian animal ewer or the sophisticated designs of a Mimbres bowl.
Suze is a much sought-after exhibitor and workshop presenter. She has taught at numerous art centers and universities including Haystack Mountain School of Crafts, Penland School of Craft, Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts, Anderson Ranch Art Center, Nova Scotia School of Art and Design, Metchosin International Summer School of the Arts- Canada, Jingdezhen Ceramic Institute- China, Curaumilla Art Center- Chile, University of Nebraska/Lincoln, Tulane University, and Ohio University. She has been a presenter at the Utilitarian Clay Conference in Tennessee, the Alabama Clay Conference, North Country Studio Conference in Vermont, and Fusion-Ontario Clay and Glass Association Conference in Toronto.
Her awards include Best of Show in the First Annual Strictly Functional Pottery National, and Emerging Artist at the 2000 National Council on Education for the Ceramic Art conference, and demonstrating artist for 2021 National Council on Education for Ceramic Art conference.
Her work is in the permanent collections of George E Ohr Museum in Biloxi MS; Taipei County Yingge Ceramics Museum, Taipei, Taiwan; San Angelo Museum of Fine Arts, San Angelo, TX; Islip Art Museum, NY; Kennedy Museum of American Art, Athens OH; Greenwich House Pottery, NY; Lancaster Museum of Art, East Petersburg, PA; Rocky Mount Arts Center, Raleigh, NC, and the North Carolina Potter Center, Seagrove, NC, and with numerous private collectors.
Solo exhibitions include exhibitions at Manchester Craftsman’s Guild in Pittsburgh PA, North Carolina Pottery Center in Seagrove NC, Roswell Art Center in Atlanta, GA, 18 Hands Gallery in Houston TX, and AKAR Gallery in Iowa City.