The renowned social critic Albert Camus once wrote something to the effect that “we each make our own face”. I have always found that statement to be remarkably true. Lost your job? Getting divorced? Drinking too much? Look in the mirror. You look like hell, my friend. That face you’ve made needs work.
Conversely, there is no creature on earth more beautiful than that of a young woman carrying her first child. She floats through the aisles of Walmart wearing the face of the Pieta, absolutely glowing with the promise of fulfilling her Biblical and Darwinian destiny. Never mind that her credit card won’t work at checkout or that the rent’s past due. She is oblivious to life’s small irritations. And she is beautiful.
Two workers labor side by side in the unforgiving sun. One face is aging and wrinkled, grimacing with each bend of the back. He is fearful of losing the race to retirement. The other face is young, tan and happy to be alive. His greatest worry is that Junior might blow another engine at Talladega. Life is good. Life is not so good. Their faces tell the story.
How’s your face? You can change it, you know, if need be. Listen to Camus.
Not only do we make our own faces; we have always made others’ as well, in paintings, photographs and, from the earliest of times, on pottery.
We currently have on display a wonderful representation of Southern Face Jugs, courtesy of Major McCullough and Stephanie Bankston from their private collections. Faces on vessels have been around from the earliest civilizations, usually associated with burials or other rituals. The face pottery moves through all continents and all ages, ranging from the German Bellermine jugs, to the English Toby Mugs, and to our subject, the Southern pottery face jugs.
Edgefield, South Carolina is generally accepted as the birthplace of southern face jugs. Thomas Chandler, the granddaddy of the art, was based in Edgefield and pioneered in the 1840’s the process of alkaline glazed stoneware pottery, a vastly superior finish over the traditional salt glaze used for everyday stoneware. It was also a fortunate geographical convergence of the pottery artisans with one of the south’s largest brick manufacturers nearby, complete with kilns, a little excess capacity at the end of the production day and both European and African potters working in the area.
This confluence of events and people led to a golden age of face jug pottery that still thrives today in the Carolinas and parts of Georgia, Tennessee and Alabama.
While we now tend to think of face jugs as an art form, the original jugs were almost always made for their utility to serve as vessels for syrup, water and especially whiskey. Ironically, many face jugs were produced in the northern border states after the Civil War attempting to depict the evils of whiskey by expressing the tormented, disfigured faces of overindulgence, complete with hallucinogenic images of snakes and demons. But in the South, the craft stayed relatively grounded and began to draw attention from scholars in the late 1800’s as part of a national movement to identify those things in our culture that were uniquely “American”. Just as interest was increasing, however, production was waning due to the evolution of our economy from small, labor-intensive production facilities to the assembly lines of the twentieth century.
As a result of this paradigm shift, the art of handcrafted face jug pottery lay fairly dormant until a revival in the 1960’s and 70’s, led primarily by Lanier Meaders of Georgia and Burlon Craig of North Carolina. The popularity of face jugs as collectables is currently thriving for both antique and newly made vessels. A recent show featuring Craigs’ works in Winston-Salem had collectors lined up hours before opening for the first chance to acquire his pieces.
The fine works we have on display represent the old and the new, the ugly and the whimsical. We think it will be worth your while to stop by. They will be waiting for you until the middle of November.
