Spotlight on Art

By Carolyn Henderson

Special to the Dayton Chronicle

DAYTON–Wenaha Gallery is showcasing both the functional and non-functional ceramic ware of Pat Fleming through October 3.

Kennewick artist Pat Fleming, has been creating, making, and teaching art for more than 54 years, uses clay that he has dug up from Othello, Prosser, and along the Walla Walla River Basin. His glazes derive from soil and ash in the area, including that from the 1980 Mt. St. Helens eruption.

"The coloring of most of my glazes comes from the iron in the soil, clay, or wood ash," Fleming explains.

"The color range is from ochre, brown, black or an iron red, all from the local soil."

Sometimes, Fleming even uses ash from his backyard barbecue.

It's all natural, normal, and timeless, Fleming says, observing that pottery is a 12,000-year-old, worldwide art that never goes out of fashion, isn't susceptible to trends, and incorporates unique techniques depending upon the time and place in which it is fashioned.

"My pottery statement is, 'See what our ancestors did for over 12,000 years, and we can still do it.' It is cost efficient, it is possible, it is the ultimate craft."

Fleming, who is sort of but never really retired from the Kennewick public school system where he taught art for more than 33 years, has been called out of retirement more than four times, and each time he answers that call. Numerous students have joined him in digging clay, transporting it back to the school, and learning to shape it on the wheel.

"As I look back on my 54 years of art in one way or the other being my livelihood, I wonder how I could have been so lucky," Fleming says.

"I wish I could do it all over again."