Stephen Driver

Named 2025 Arkansas Living Treasure 

https://www.arkansasheritage.com/blog/dah/2025/03/24/potter-stephen-driver-named-2025-arkansas-living-treasure

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I am a potter who loves to make functional pots that grow out of traditional influences and processes. But there is so much more to making good pots than that. I think good pots are as profound as any other form of human expression. Most of you would probably be surprised that my work has been deeply influence by the artist Marcel Duchamp. Duchamp was so much more than a repurposed urinal and he is one of the most important thinkers about art of the twentieth century. I am particularly enamored with his concept of “the serious joke”. My use of the “serious joke is most obvious in the creation of domain names that might look like real enterprises and in more capable, more entrepreneurial hands might even be successful businesses. Domain names like Little Stevie’s Raccoon Removal or Ozark Wabi are born out of actual experiences and I am very serious about them, but they are also a joke, a serious joke, much like Duchamp’s “50cc of Paris Air” or many of his other Readymades.

My collection of domain names are part of my fantasy corporate empire. I actually make my own jam. I do help my neighbors by removing raccoons from their gardens. I would really like to have a Parallel University as a place of higher learning. I do want to create my own ceramic esthetic with Ozark Wabi. My deep admiration for George Ohr is reflected in my Mad Potter of the Ozarks. All serious jokes.

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I like to think that the making of functional pots is a subversive activity. What I make is Art but most people would consider what I do as Craft or Decorative Art and with that, a kind of diminished status. Subversive in that my intent is to design and make objects for daily use that communicate and convey, something much more than just utilitarian function. Art in plain sight or what I like to call “the secret life of objects”.

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