“Sometimes people say, ‘Hey, I saw your pot on Etsy for $1,000,’ and I probably sold it for about $100. But I would make pots even if I couldn’t sell them. I’d give them away if I had to.
At 15, I managed to sneak into the Marine Corps. I was six-foot-one-and-a-half and weighed 200 pounds. They didn’t want to know anything; they just said, ‘Sign here.’ Two weeks later, I was in boot camp in San Diego. We were training for the invasion of Japan, and then they dropped the bomb and that ended it.
I realized, Hey, I’ve got to get a better education if I’m going to do anything in life. I decided to get out of the Marines. I would work all night at the police department and go to school during the day.
At City College, I just fell right into pottery. From 1959 on, I was a potter. Clay tells you what it wants to do if you listen. You start with mud, you end up with something beautiful. And if it doesn’t come out perfect, that’s okay; that’s part of the charm.
When I met Barbara, it took me about three months before I finally got the nerve up and asked her out. She accepted and we had the most wonderful date in the world. We went to see Camelot at a drive-in movie in Midtown. Then we went out to the Carnation Ice Cream place and had hamburgers and malts. We talked until they kicked us out and went out and parked and talked and talked. We just hit it off. She was very beautiful, very intelligent, and fun-loving.
And Barbara was a wonderful craftsman. She taught at a gallery here in Encinitas for 40 years—a total of 50 different craft techniques. She was invited to show her dolls in the Louvre. We dreamed of having a house like this where we could work at our crafts. [Kendrick Bangs] Kellogg designed this house; Barbara was friends with his wife. A fireman who lived nearby and I built it together. Every piece of wood in this house has got my fingerprints on it. Barbara did the interior design.
But two years ago, Barbara got a little sick. They found out it was stage four colon cancer. Boom, just like that, she was gone. We only had four weeks to be with her before she passed. We were married for just under 54 years.
It’s not the same without her. I thought I would have been the first to go. I’m older. I’m 94 now. I broke my back during Covid, but I’m still making pots and I still love it. Sometimes I go out just to look at the pots when they’re cooling. Even now, when I open the kiln, it still feels a little like Christmas morning. I’ll make pots until I drop. That’s the plan.”
– Renowned ceramicist Wayne Chapman speaking from his basement studio in Solana Beach. Chapman’s work will be featured in the Mingei International Museum exhibition Boundless: Reflections of Southern California Landscapes in Midcentury Studio Ceramics, opening Sept. 27.
