“Are you gonna be an earthy person, practical, bound to earth, or are you going to be a dreamer, a visionary? I don’t have to choose. I am both, and I live in the crossing point.” – MC Richards
The words of poet and potter MC Richards (1916-1999) go to the heart of the ethos at Black Mountain College, and chime with the stories of so many of those who spent time there. This week, our #WomenOfBMC are Richards and her friend, the potter Karen Karnes (1925-2016).
They met at Black Mountain when Richards was teaching writing, and Karnes was potter-in-residence. In 1954, they went together to join Vera Williams and others in forming Gate Hill Cooperative, an artists’ commune. (More on that in last week’s post on Vera Williams). Head to our blog to read more about their lives and work at Black Mountain and beyond. From working with some of the most influential potters of the 20th century, including Shoji Hamada, Bernard Leach, and Bauhaus potter Marguerite Wildenhain, to inventing a revolutionary flame-proof clay, discover two women at that precise crossing point Richards described, both practical and visionary.
Images: Karen Karnes in the pottery workshop at Black Mountain College, 1952. Photograph by Edward Dupuy.; MC Richards with her husband and fellow faculty member, Bill Levi by Lake Eden, Black Mountain College, c.1946. Photograph by Stuart Atkinson. Courtesy Western Regional Archives, State Archives of North Carolina.