Pottery On The Wheel

Pottery On the Wheel

John Markott can see with his hands.

At five years old, Markott molded and shaped the one gift that would stick with him from childhood to retirement. The block of plaster scene clay, that softened the more he rolled it between his tiny hands, became the greatest toy given to him by his grandmother’s Canadian tenants. Little did young Markott know the block of clay would carry over into his adult life gravitating him towards a career of teaching ceramics, even after he retired as a high school teacher.

The current Stony Brook University pottery instructor, who taught classes in ceramics drawing and painting for thirty years, found the Craft Center as a new beginning after retirement. “I enjoy teaching so it’s just natural for me to be here. I feel like I’m still vital to teach, retirement doesn’t mean that you end your life,” says Markott, while carving the phrase “peace be with you” at the bottom edge of his salad bowl.

Markott, who is currently one out of four other instructors for the Pottery on the Wheel class, worked at Hands on Clay in Setauket before it shut down. After discovering the Craft Center at Stony Brook, he decided to take a chance in finding a position. “I came down, introduced myself and joined. When they found out I was a teacher, they wanted me even more to teach,” recalls Markott, who also teaches drawing at the University.

Observing new students touch clay for the first time is what Markott considers fun to watch. He believes in blindfolding his students as a way for beginners to become familiar with the clay. Instead of using rigid teaching instructions by forcing a student to learn pottery a specific way, he would rather teach reasoning and principles as a method behind the craft. “Once you have it in your mind, you have to make your hands do all the seeing,” says Markott. Learning to center clay by relying on your hands and not the eyes it becomes alot easier.

Candleholders, mugs, dishes and bowls are some of the many creations you will find in Markott’s home. Majoring in art rather than science in college, he admitted that pottery didn’t come easily. “I had a hard time centering clay,” said the instructor. It wasn’t until finally graspinh the techniques of locking his hands in place and pushing with his hips to stable the clay that he then went on to teach pottery for the last thirty years.

The retired highschool art teacher, who began with a block of plaster scene clay, sculpted his love for pottery from the first moment he tried it, letting his hands create what his eyes could never do alone.

Pottery on the Wheel from Jessicalaforest on Vimeo.