Page 49 - Winter 2022

met Jerry Chappelle, an Oconee potter who was doing graduate work in pottery.
“There were six or seven of us there,” said Simon. “It was an exciting atmosphere. Jerry came down to the University of Georgia and established Happy Valley farm. In November 1970, I came down too.”
At that time, Simon was married. His wife, Sandra, accompanied him, and they set up housekeeping at Happy Valley. As he describes it, “We cleared out a part of Jerry’s chicken coop and moved in.”
They built several kilns. Then, Simon received a summons from his draft board. He had registered as a conscientious objector, so the board let him take a job at St. Mary’s Hospital, which he kept for two years.
In 1972, he moved into the old Foster Whitehead homeplace, part of the Durham estate.
Simon is considered by Oconee potters generally as one of the finest, not only because of the beauty of his pieces and the
sensitivity behind the designs, but because they wed those traits to practicality.
Simon’s work has become part of many lives. Like the handleless cups, his work has a warmth. It simply feels as good as it looks.
Simon also makes teapots, bowls, cups and pitchers, butter dishes and storage jars. He says that like any good artist, potters go through phases in their work.
“Perhaps I work on two pitcher forms for six months,” he says. “One is wise-bottomed with straight sides, the other is lower with swelling sides. I work through those, then go on to other forms.”
Cold weather doesn’t pose too many problems for potters, he said. Solitude does, at least to Simon.
“I think myself into a hole,” he says. “I need people.”
“All I know is that before I’m done, I want to make a wide variety of beautiful things,” concluded Simon. “Pottery is a genuine way to live.”
WINTER 2022 | OCONEE THE MAGAZINE | PAGE 47