Feature Articles

June Issue 1999

 

Folk Art Center Offers Cynthia Bringle: A Fiery Influence

 

 

Through June 27, 1999, the Main Gallery at the Folk Art Center, in Asheville, NC, will host a special retrospective exhibition honoring Cynthia Bringle, one of North Carolina's best known potters. In addition to a collection of her work representing forty years of functional stoneware, Cynthia Bringle: a Fiery Influence includes works by many of her students who, with her influence, have become professional potters themselves.

A Fiery Influence describes not only the fire which fluxes the pots, but Bringle's influence on her students and friends, which has been like a fire: widely seen and very illuminating. The exhibition explores the creative aspect of fire: light giving, transformative, an inspirational torch. From Bringle's early years teaching at Penland School of Craft, she has provided just such an inspiration to her students and fellow craftspeople. If asked about Cynthia Bringle, most potters will agree that she can be counted on to give you a straight answer. Her influence on her students' lives and work is often remembered as direct and inspiring. Bringle says of her own teaching technique, "I have always tried to encourage (students) to improve their technical abilities along with their sense of design. A person's abilities can make a huge leap in a short amount of time. The real benefits come during the next six months as they continue to work on the knowledge gained..."

Born in Memphis, TN, to a physician father, Bringle and her twin sister Edwina were the first of five children. She began taking art classes as a teenager. She went to art camp in the North Carolina mountains, and eventually attended Memphis College of Art. It was there that she discovered clay, and while taking courses at Haystack School of Craft and doing graduate work at Alfred University, began making connections that led to a life as a potter.

Having become a potter at a time when choosing a career in ceramics was virtually unknown for women, Bringle gave clay demonstrations and talks at Memphis women's clubs. She became an example of what can be accomplished if stereotypes are ignored. For a daughter of a prominent doctor to get up to her elbows in wet clay before an audience of white-gloved society women was unheard-of, but she did not give up her passion to suit society's expectations. In fact, she made it her goal to get the women to "replace all the plastic in their kitchen with pottery."

During Bringle's years as a visiting teacher at Penland School of Craft in the 1960s, the school's director, Bill Brown, began fostering a vision that Penland could grow into a community of craftspeople living and working together. He called on talented craftspeople from across the nation to come to the mountaintop school as permanent residents. In 1970, Bringle left Memphis and responded to the call to join the community. Following that first wave of transplanted craftspeople, the community has grown, and today Bringle's influence is seen throughout the fabric of the community. Known as the "Mayor of Penland" she is a valued resource to the school staff and gives her time to the community just as her father gave to his patients. She is known by many for her encouragement and by all students for her informal open house given at every session.

Jon Ellenbogen and Rebecca Plummer of Barking Spider Pottery made a very special connection with Bringle when they were studying at Penland. Ellenbogen was unhappy in his job as an engineering professor and took a clay class on a whim. Plummer was one of his classmates. Thinking back on that first class, he realizes the impact it had on his life. "Little did I know that Cynthia was to become my friend and neighbor, and Becky was to become my wife, partner, and mother to our children." Ellenbogen believes the ability to make the changes in his life came from seeing "the example Cynthia provided as a working potter, and the inspiration her work and teaching offered us."

Malcolm Davis, a full-time studio potter, remembers some wisdom given by Bringle when he studied under her in 1976. "Once, upon losing an entire wareboard of green pots, she taught me a tough and essential lesson." He remembers her words, "It's only clay, Malcolm." Nick Joerling, a Penland area potter was given some perspective by Bringle when he found himself impatient with his progress. She gave it to him straight with the comment, "It's seven years after you're in your own studio before you're making your own pots."

For many whom have been mentored by Bringle, observing her at work on the wheel has been a major inspiration for their own involvement with clay. It is impressive to see her ability to "make the clay sing," in a rhythm which has been described as a dance between her hands and the clay. Watching the ease with which she manipulates clay has been as helpful to her students as her practical, down-to-earth words of encouragement. For those unsure or discouraged about making ceramics a practical career, Bringle, by example, has made it possible to envision a life with clay. A generous spirit and a practical outlook are offered in abundance in her classroom because, as she says, "I like to teach the way I wish someone had taught me." Her friendships with her students are as plentiful as they are lasting. Former student Jill Ruhlman, who began her friendship with Bringle 25 years ago as a Penland student remarks that each time she and Bringle get together, "she still sends me home with a warm loaf of bread or a gallon of blueberries." With a fire that continues to burn brightly for her work, Cynthia Bringle offers an example, for those who will observe, of how one can begin to shape a life as a potter.

For further information check our NC Institutional Gallery listings or call the Center at 828/298-7928.

 

New Guild Members Juried In

 

Over one hundred-forty craftspeople applied for membership to the Southern Highland Craft Guild this March through the Guild's annual jurying. The Guild's Standards Committee, which oversees the jurying process, accepted thirty-three new members, for craft objects showing excellence in design and craftsmanship in eight different craft media.

The new members are:
Wood - Sharon Locke, of Berea, KY; Allan Hollar of Newland, NC; Cliff Ammons of Greeneville, TN; Bobby Michelson of Birmingham, AL; Gary Mascaro of Norris, TN and Brian Boggs of Berea, KY.

Jewelry - Howard Thompson of Tullahoma, TN, and Joanna Gollberg of Asheville, NC.

Fiber - Deborah Wheeler of Bakersville, NC; Tinka Fedorka of Winchester, VA; Sondra Dorn of Penland, NC; Julia McCrory Weatherford of Black Mountain, NC; Karen Hoffman of Newland, NC; Allison Dennis of Asheville, NC and Rickie Westbrooks of Asheville, NC.

Mixed Media - Sandy Prock of Greenville, SC.

Metal - Andy Brittain of Horse Shoe, NC, and William Rogers of Christianburg, VA.

Paper - Emily Tuttle of Hendersonville, TN, and Marsha Heatwole of Lexington, VA.

Glass - John Nickerson of Waynesville, NC, and Fiona Clark and Vincent DeLisle of Burnsville, NC.

Clay - Bill Capshaw of Oak Ridge, TN; Becky Gray of Burnsville, NC; Henry Goodman of Arden, NC; Teresa Gail Cole of Berea, KY; Larry Allen of Birmingham, AL; Mark Peters of Bakersville, NC; Richard Hensley of Floyd, VA; M.L. Bagwell of Brevard, NC; June Crowe of Knoxville, TN; Mark Tomczak of Nebo, NC and David Crane of Blacksburg, VA.

For further information call the Center at 828/298-7928

 

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