I am posting most of the rest of the story. I have left out what I believe can
be called "filler".
"Berry began potting 21 years ago when she was 50. She had taken a
pottery class in the early 1950s, loved it, but never had a chance to get back
to it. Now she finds it soothing to sit at the wheel and work on a piece.
"'It helps me center.' she said. 'It's like a meditation, a focusing.'
"Berry also stays busy as a member of a volunteer organization that
provides information and educational programs about a nearby wildlife refuge.
'Liz has volunteered at the visitor's center that we opened and worked in the
naturalists' library cataloging the books,' said Herb Melchior, coordinator of
the Creamers Field Wildlife Management Unit. 'She also worked teaching kids in
all kinds of communities about art and nature.'
"The Alaska Legislature recognized Berry for her work promoting art in a
proclamation in May 1994 that said, in part; 'As a potter, Elizabeth Berry has
introduced clay art to villages around the state. In this as in her approach to
life, she shows us how we can work with what is available to create something
beautiful and useful, using materials at hand.'
"Berry wedges clay, kneading it like bread dough, in the winter sunlight
streaming down through the basement window. She rents out the upstairs of her
log home and the nearby cabin that her deceased husband, William Berry, used as
a studio. To her right is a two-foot mammoth painted on the concrete block
wall. On its head sits a woman throwing a pot and using the animal's tusk for a
wheel.
"The drawing style is familiar to anyone who visits the story pit at the
Noel Wien Public Library. The Berry Room was named in honor of William Berry,
who was murdered in 1979 before completing the mural. The University of Alaska
Press also published a book of his field sketches compiled by his wife.
"Berry uses cutouts of animals that her husband made to decorate her
plates and pots with silhouettes. Since her shaking prevents a steady hand, her
son Paul puts the figures on the artwork. The Parkinson's has sapped the
strength from her arms and limits the types of pieces she can throw.
"To cope, she's making pet food dishes and decorates each with paw
prints. The flat-bottom pieces are easier to work with and sell quite well, she
said. 'I do what I can do and I find you can do almost anything, if you make
the decision that is what you want,' she said.
"When she takes a break from the wheel, Berry heads outside to enjoy
walking in the woods around her home. Since her illness affects her balance she
has had to give up a favorite outdoor sport, cross-country skiing. But she
still likes to snowshoe.
"When the weather cooperates she takes her kayak out. Since both sons
now live on Glacier Bay, she visits there and kayaks in the bay.
"She recently returned from a trip to Ecuador and the Galapagos Islands.
While the pottery she saw was, in her words, 'humbling,' it was the incredible
beauty of the Galapagos that left a deep impression."
I hope this wasn't too long, but I find her quite remarkable.
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Helen Ormsby [log in to unmask]
"Old soldiers never die. Young ones do."
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