We met in High School, we had Homeroom together, and started dating.

 

Ronnie had Art Classes at Cass High with Bill Amos.  This was Ronnie's first experience at turning on a potter's wheel.  Bill Amos also did Art Festivals and made pottery, most of his work was decorative earthenware with a lot of sculpted pieces, he is probably most well known for his "ugly" mugs.  This was Ronnie's first glimpse at making pottery.

 

One day Ronnie brought me a pansy pot that Bill Amos had made, I loved the pottery and we started going to Art Festivals while we were dating, we loved it! 

 

Soon we were married and still enjoyed going to Art Festivals.  We saw a lot of very talented artists and enjoyed buying and decorating our home with these wonderful arts.  But we loved pottery most of all!

 

I met a wonderful lady at work, Belle Ann Bohannon, who collected Gordy pottery, she and I would go to his studio on our lunch hour to visit and buy pottery.  It was also great to find another potter who had studied with Mr. Gordy, which was Ron Cooper.

 

We started collecting Ron Cooper's pottery in 1985 after seeing him at the Rose Lawn Arts & Crafts Festival in Cartersville.  He is a very talented potter and made a lot of useful items, not just decorative.  We still enjoy getting pottery from Ron to add to our collection.

 

Our son Ryan was born soon after that and when he was small, he didn't want to color in a coloring book, he wanted me to draw him something to color.  It was then I discovered that I could draw.  This was exciting and soon Ryan was drawing too!  Ryan and I took drawing lessons from a local artist, Sandy Howell, who would send us home with homework.  But this would only help with the understanding of shading and perspective. 

 

I also started researching our family history for Ryan and found many pictures, stories and interesting facts about our family.  One of Ronnies ancestors is documented in the Cherokee Indian Rolls and went on the Trail of Tears, and he also has a ancestor who was a gun smith and furniture builder.  I have an ancestor who worked as a weaver and 2 ancestors who made pottery in Paulding County, Ga.  Those 2 ancestors are in the Brothers In Clay book by Dr. John Burrison, this was exiciting to find them in the book with the Gordy and Meaders Family!

 

Ronnie spoke with Ron Cooper about coming to his studio to watch and learn about making pottery.  He would spend the day with Ron, go home to sleep and worked the later shift.  He did this for 4 1/2 years.  His true dedication to the art of making pottery is seen every day in his studio.  Ronnie is truly a very talented artist and potter.

 

Ronnie works Monday - Saturday at the studio, please stop by for a visit and see what's new!

 

We are truly thankful that God has blessed our family!