I don’t claim to know the origin of face jugs, but surely somewhere in the mythology is the story of some potter who, after a long day of turning scores of jugs, had the playfulness or artistic urge to roll up some scraps of clay and fashion a face on a drying jug. While I have always been drawn to folk art and sculpture, it is the way the face jug transforms the ordinary into the extraordinary—the utilitarian into the artistic declaration—that keeps me focused on making these grinning and wincing vessels.
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