Hamilton Williams

 

Born in Columbia, SC, Hamilton's family eventually came to settle in the North Carolina foothills. His initial introduction to clay was digging cool grey stoneware clay out of the ditches and creek banks around his childhood home. He encountered clay again in the more formal settings of high school and college but it wasn't until Hamilton took a class with Setsuya Kotani at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro that he plunged headlong into a lifetime of working with clay. Hamilton can often be found hiking through the rugged landscape of the Appalachian mountains, losing himself among granite boulders and rushing streams. "It really doesn't matter where I am," says Hamilton, "If I can get away from the crowds and cities and just see the landscape rolling out ahead of me, I'm much calmer and happier." Working at the potter's wheel provides Hamilton with a similar sense of calm, putting all of his attention into the one simple act of shaping a pot. Though many diverse influences inform Hamilton's work, his love of landscape and food as well as sense of space rank the highest.  - Hamilton Williams, Morganton NC