Our Story: Linville River Pottery
Patti Connor-Greene
When I was six years old, I watched a potter
make a bowl on his kickwheel,
and I was lost to the magic of clay.
I got my first chance to work on the wheel
as a student at Wells College. I was hooked;
I took every ceramics course that
the Art Department offered.
I continued to work with clay at the
University of South Carolina while
completing a PhD in clinical psychology,
and spent two weeks every summer
immersed in workshops at
Penland and Arrowmont
throughout my 25 years on the
Clemson University faculty.
For many years, my husband Dan Greene
and I lived in Clemson SC
but spent most weekends
in Avery County NC, in our cabin that
Dan's parents built with their own hands.
And a bit of synchronicity:
that cabin is near Penland, the craft school
and arts community that had intrigued me
since reading the Penland Book of Pottery
in 1975. I was living in the Finger Lakes
region of New York State at the time,
with no inkling that I'd later meet and marry
Dan, a North Carolinian whose parents
built a cabin 25 miles from Penland.
In late August 2001, Dan and I had
just returned home from a 3-month voyage
with Semester at Sea; I was a professor,
but Dan claims he had the best gig
on the ship: faculty spouse.
Exhilarated by our travels,
we were primed for more adventures.
Driving up to our cabin that weekend,
we passed a tiny church that had been
vacant for years; as always, I commented,
"That would make a great studio!"
But something was different this time:
A "For Sale" sign.
So Dan said,
"Let's do it! You've always dreamt
of a having studio in the mountains."
So we sat on our porch that night
and imagined our next chapter.
Turns out the little church needed extensive
repairs, more than we could afford. But that
was a watershed moment. Within 3 weeks,
we had signed a contract to buy
a run-down property in Pineola NC,
about a mile down the road from our cabin;
ideal to create what we envisioned.
We spent weekends gradually renovating the
dilapidated house into a studio
and we built my dream kiln:
a catenary arch gas-fired soda kiln.
And Dan and I each created a
7-year plan; everything we wanted to
complete in our careers before we retired.
So in 2008, I retired as a
psychology professor at Clemson University,
Dan retired as a psychologist with the
SC Dept. of Mental Health,
and we sold our home in Clemson
and moved to Avery County to follow
our combined dream:
my chance to work with clay full-time,
and Dan's return to his beloved
North Carolina mountains,
a region that values
music, handmade work, and nature.
We named our studio after
the nearby Linville River.
"And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time."
- T.S. Eliot (from "Little Gidding")
Patti Connor-Greene
When I was six years old, I watched a potter
make a bowl on his kickwheel,
and I was lost to the magic of clay.
I got my first chance to work on the wheel
as a student at Wells College. I was hooked;
I took every ceramics course that
the Art Department offered.
I continued to work with clay at the
University of South Carolina while
completing a PhD in clinical psychology,
and spent two weeks every summer
immersed in workshops at
Penland and Arrowmont
throughout my 25 years on the
Clemson University faculty.
For many years, my husband Dan Greene
and I lived in Clemson SC
but spent most weekends
in Avery County NC, in our cabin that
Dan's parents built with their own hands.
And a bit of synchronicity:
that cabin is near Penland, the craft school
and arts community that had intrigued me
since reading the Penland Book of Pottery
in 1975. I was living in the Finger Lakes
region of New York State at the time,
with no inkling that I'd later meet and marry
Dan, a North Carolinian whose parents
built a cabin 25 miles from Penland.
In late August 2001, Dan and I had
just returned home from a 3-month voyage
with Semester at Sea; I was a professor,
but Dan claims he had the best gig
on the ship: faculty spouse.
Exhilarated by our travels,
we were primed for more adventures.
Driving up to our cabin that weekend,
we passed a tiny church that had been
vacant for years; as always, I commented,
"That would make a great studio!"
But something was different this time:
A "For Sale" sign.
So Dan said,
"Let's do it! You've always dreamt
of a having studio in the mountains."
So we sat on our porch that night
and imagined our next chapter.
Turns out the little church needed extensive
repairs, more than we could afford. But that
was a watershed moment. Within 3 weeks,
we had signed a contract to buy
a run-down property in Pineola NC,
about a mile down the road from our cabin;
ideal to create what we envisioned.
We spent weekends gradually renovating the
dilapidated house into a studio
and we built my dream kiln:
a catenary arch gas-fired soda kiln.
And Dan and I each created a
7-year plan; everything we wanted to
complete in our careers before we retired.
So in 2008, I retired as a
psychology professor at Clemson University,
Dan retired as a psychologist with the
SC Dept. of Mental Health,
and we sold our home in Clemson
and moved to Avery County to follow
our combined dream:
my chance to work with clay full-time,
and Dan's return to his beloved
North Carolina mountains,
a region that values
music, handmade work, and nature.
We named our studio after
the nearby Linville River.
"And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time."
- T.S. Eliot (from "Little Gidding")
