Daniel Johnston (NC, b. 1971), Large Covered Stoneware Floor Urn with Glass Runs

Lot Details & Additional Photographs

Seagrove, North Carolina, circa 2016, wood fired stoneware with salt and ash glazes, glass runs, stamped with artist monogram "D" to the rim, ovoid form pot featuring six applied handles to the shoulder, tooled three-ring shoulder and base, the body featuring incised chevron patterned hachure with attractive conforming ash and glass runs, together with a distinctive finial cover.

36 x 21 x 21 in.

Private Collection, Graham, North Carolina

Daniel Johnston apprenticed in the Leach-Cardew-Hewitt school of pottery making. After his four-year apprenticeship with Mark Hewitt, he spent time in the village of Phon Bok, Thailand, where he worked with Thai potters producing large utilitarian jars. Daniel's practice is informed by Southeast Asian methods of coil building, combined with traditional North Carolina clay and glaze practices. Johnston has established his pottery studio and kiln in Seagrove, North Carolina, where he relies on the special particle sizes and properties of the native Mitchfield clay. He strives to allow every part of the process to have its own space and independence: “My philosophy,” Daniel says, “is that you have to work with the kiln...the pot, the slips, and the glazes. And the fire. You have to understand all these things. I’m not practicing chemistry, you know. I’m practicing art.“

Johnston is featured in museum collections at the North Carolina Museum of Art, Mint Museum, Gregg Museum of Art & Design, and North Carolina Pottery Center. He has lectured and taught workshops at the Smithsonian’s Folklife Festival, Penland School of Craft, and St. Ives Ceramics.

Good estate condition.