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OU DAILY
A LEUKEMIA SURVIVOR EXPLAINS HER LOVE OF RELAY FOR LIFE • 3
KIL’N IT
CHLOE MOORES/THE DAILY
Daniel Harris shows off one of his ceramic teapots. Harris received his bachelor’s and master’s degree of fine arts in ceramics at OU.
Creating for the love of expression
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CHLOE MOORES/THE DAILY
Daniel Harris stands in front of his outdoor studio where he works on his ceramics projects. Harris will be the featured artist at the Mayfair Arts Festival.
CHLOE MOORES/THE DAILY
Pots and plates made by Daniel Harris sit outside his studio. Harris works in his studio almost all day when he isn’t with his family.
SEE HIS WORK
Daniel Harris, a Norman resident and established potter, has his work on display at: • The Mid-America Pottery show at Kansas’s National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts • Local boutique STASH (412 E Main St., Norman, OK) • Mayfair Festival of the Arts in Allentown, Pennysylvania — May 27-30, 2016
CHLOE MOORES • @CHLOEMOORES13
orman resident Daniel Harris, 58, is known for his long beard, paint-stained jeans and different names — Da n , Da n ny , M r. C ra ckp o t, teacher and baker, but his favorite is potter. The year was 1977, and Harris was working in Trisom Bakery near South Bend, Indiana, when a co-worker suggested he take a pottery class. Harris heeded the advice and found his passion. “When I closed my eyes that night, I saw the wheel spinning, and I didn’t dream about pottery, but I knew I was going to be a potter for the rest of my life,” Harris said. After taking a few classes, Harris decided to embark on an independent study at Notre Dame, where he met his wife. Carol Wahpepah, Harris’ wife, said before meeting Harris, she had heard of a potter who made teapots for ar tistic purposes rather than tea. Wahpepah thought it was strange until she saw his work. “I just thought it was pretty amazing,” she said. “I never even thought about pottery. I tried when we were dating, and it was really hard.” After two years at Notre Dame, Wahpepah and Harris moved to Norman, where he received a bachelor’s and master’s degree of fine arts in ceramics at OU. Currently, Harris creates series based on single words, and he sticks to a unique philosophy when it comes to moving clay, he said. “When I throw the pot, I don’t want to intrude on the surface. I want the pot to be itself,” he said. “That’s a pretty insane idea. I would say that’s pretty close to religious.” Now, 38 years after his first pottery class, Harris will be a featured artist at The Mayfair Festival of the Arts in late May, while his work is already on exhibit at The Mid-America
Potter y show in Kansas and can be found at local boutique, STASH, he said. Alongside these achievements, he has taught full-time as the art teacher at Irving Middle School for the past 21 years, he said. Har r is made the decision to teach after learning fulltime potters spends six to eight months on the road marketing his or her pottery and the remaining months of the year cranking out work, he said.
“When I throw the pot, I don’t want to intrude on the surface. I want the pot to be itself. That’s a pretty insane idea. I would say that’s pretty close to religious.” DANIEL HARRIS, NORMAN RESIDENT AND POTTER
“I used to work at the national camp for the blind back in New York, so I always enjoyed teaching, and I thought as a school teacher I get four months off a year to make pots,” he said. As a potter marketing his work full-time, Harris would make just enough to cover the cost of living expenses. The median annual pay of craft and fine artists in 2014 was $44,400, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. These factors confirmed Harris’ desire to make pottery out of love rather than striving to sell enough pottery to make a living. When Harris sells his work, mugs are $25, bowls are $20, serving bowls are $65 and Harris’ signature teapots range from $300 to $1,600, he said. Rebecca Bean, owner of STASH, said her first impression of Harris was how quirky, charming and modest he was about his work.
“He said, ‘Yeah, you know, I do some pottery,’ then he brought it in, and I thought, ‘This is the coolest, most unique pottery I’ve seen coming out of Oklahoma,’” she said. Bean found out Harris was a local celebrity after uploading a picture of him on STASH’s social media with the news that the store would sell his work, she said. “Every former student of his flooded in. We sold out within 48 hours of putting his work on the shelf, and he had brought in quite a large collection,” she said. Harris’ popularity can be attributed to the way he encourages his students’ creativity and allows them to express themselves, Bean said. “He’s beloved in this community,” she said. “What an incredible gift he is to us.” Hannah Wahpepah-Harris, Harris’ daughter, said she still has miniature clay pieces her father made for her dollhouse when she was a young girl. Wahpepah-Har r is star ted a Facebook page for her father to continue to spread awareness for his work, she said. “I know he does (pottery) for himself because he loves it,” she said. “I don’t think selling is his full focus. But I’ve started posting pictures of his mugs on Monday and calling it Mugshot Monday.” Harris works in his outdoor studio from 5 a.m. to 2 p.m. on weekends when he isn’t traveling or spending time with his family. Harris is currently working on his “lazy teapot series” and hopes to teach pottery fulltime at OU in the future, he said. “I’m just looking forward to the next day and working on some ideas that I have,” he said. Chloe Moores
margaret.c.moores-1@ou.edu