“You see, being here is not about this!” Richard lifts a beautiful thrown ceramic pitcher and thumps the fifteen-foot dining room table with it emphatically staring me down with a cold and resolute expression of absolute authority. “Being here is about the person. How one walks, talks, eats, and breathes is directly reflected in the work they make. Develop the person and the pots will follow. Like Ferguson always said, you’ve got to dig a deep well!”
Conversations, dialogue, polemical debate, frustrated raging lunacy, story telling, food and wine, fine art and pottery have been the substance of my Pope Valley Pottery residency. For Richard Carter, this 80-acre parcel of land provides a home, a studio and a way of life. Residing full time on this converted 130 year old farmstead and ranch just outside of the Napa Valley, Carter maintains two wood-burning kilns, a studio, a garden, a gutted and renovated farmhouse, an orchard, tent cabins, and a gallery showcasing resident work. Richard seems to possess an acquired sense of immaculate order tempered by an intuitive understanding and acceptance of a higher natural order. This is apparent in every aspect of his life as far as I can tell. On the ranch, old farm buildings are falling apart yet are reverently kept in check as virtuous mediators to a bygone era. Little white and yellow flowers have been planted and have taken seed along the foundation of the farmhouse’s wrap around porch. They are sprouting serendipitously from one of three terra cotta planters both defining and obscuring the line between the perimeter of the house and the adjoining courtyard of raked pea gravel. Once, Richard was given green plastic lawn chairs for the kiln area. They eventually were passed on because they just didn’t fit with the aesthetic. This place is Carter’s canvas; every detail considered and attended to as part of his daily routine.
