While things west of here are constantly changing and for the worse in some minds. (you know progress and all.) Here the same quiet streets and downtown buildings have remained unchanged for years.
Famous Arkansas poet John Gould Fletcher had written Louis and Elsie Freund many years ago, that "There's not much happening in Eureka, but it sure is laid out pretty." And so it could be of no surprise that artists like me would end up here, basking in beauty, attempting to build skill in reflection of it.
I first heard of Eureka Springs when I was studying pottery at Memphis State University. I had exhausted the resources at Memphis State and was ready to move on, grad school or whatever. A former pottery student passed through the studio to give her regards to her old teaching staff and mentioned that she had a job at the Spring St Pottery making things from clay. She encouraged me to come to Eureka and check things out. I enlisted a couple friends, Mitch and Dori to come with me and with my dog Allie we did.
At the time, most of the houses were in a state of disrepair and all were painted white with no additional attention color-wise to their Victorian embellishments. There is one main street that wanders through the town and you can go round and round, seeing new things, and can drive the same street years and years still discovering new things that have been around for years even from before when we were born.
To keep a short story short, they were long on potters at the Spring St. Pottery, but after being lost for awhile on the town's one main street we found the old Red School house on Kansas, where I found the Eureka Pottery Coop in a basement and was welcomed like a fresh spark of long lost soul.
And so, I will in subsequent posts, attempt to tell more.
The photo is of Cowan's hand made box guitar, finished by Cowan and his grandpa after my weekend class at ESSA.
Make, fix, and create.
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