Darren Powers

a.k.a. Johnny Glaze

Unique Ceramic Sculpture

©Darren Powers 2017

It's 2017.... about 7 years since I wrote the artist statement below. 

©Darren Powers 2017

I was going to write a fresh one and then when I reread what I wrote so long ago it made me giggle... so I'm not even going to revise it... I'm just going to say that a lot has changed since then.

©Darren Powers 2017

 I have a son and a daughter now, Owen age 9 and Darby age 7, and I have the privilege of being the art teacher at their school, Haw River Christian Academy... so not only are they inspiring me daily in my own artwork but so are about 70 other little kids.

©Darren Powers 2017

  I'm blessed and I still love being an artist at heart but as a father and teacher, making art isn't my number one priority... but I'm glad it is still a fun, creative outlet in my life. 

©Darren Powers 2017

  I hope you enjoy my work! 

©Darren Powers 2017

Johnny Glaze Artist Statement (2000)

I wasn’t one of those kids who knew what they wanted to be when they grew up. Maybe it was because having that kind of vision meant you had to work to fulfill it. Not just work, you had to have a vision to accomplish the vision and that required work too. It meant setting short term and long term goals and working to achieve them. See what I mean? There is a reoccurring theme involved in what I thought it took to deciding who you wanted to be and what you want to do when you get there. That’s right, you have to WORK and when you get there do you know what you have? A job and a job requires more WORK! If you think about it, I wasn’t in the wrong… I wasn’t being lazy… I was just a free spirited and impulsive kid in his early 20’s who didn’t want to grow up. Ok, maybe I can be faulted for being naïve enough to think I would never have to. Something magical happened when I graduated those troublesome 20’s. I turned 30. How is that for your anti-climactic answer? I turned 30. But seriously, it was uber-climactic. It was the “perfect storm” of realizations and reality checks. If you can visualize your local weatherman on your television pointing out all of these huge, hurricane like storms on a crash collision course over the Atlantic Ocean, it is the sum of their raw, transforming power as they merge that is known as the perfect storm. My perfect storm consisted of my reemergence into the world with a beautiful new wife after a six year Navy enlistment, the reality of my boring corporate job on a computer in a cubicle, the realizations of my past experiences, and finally… the unconditional love for my newborn son and the need to reinvent myself. I hope you’re still using your imagination and visualizing these things as huge storms with 40 ft swells and 150 mph wind gusts crashing against my little fishing boat as I struggle to hold on to the helm. Now picture the storm subsiding as the last inch of my boat goes under the water, never to surface again. A single burst of sunshine finally cracks through the clouds onto that very point where the ship took its final breath and just when you think that the hero of this story (which is me of course) dies a tragic death lost at sea…

I burst through that one shiny, sunny spot on the ocean’s surface and I’m alive. Not just alive, I’ve been reborn… Reborn as Johnny Glaze. Instead of being lost at sea, I’ve been found at sea, and even though there are two majestic dolphins by my side offering to let me ride them like skis the hundreds of miles needed to get to shore, I say nay. Why you ask? For one, I like to think that I’m the kind of guy that would show up to shore surfing a

20 ft shark. Two, I have the energy, the desire, and the vision to put in the WORK to make the swim to shore now. Because I’ve learned something, if you find something you love to do, the work you actually have to do can be a lot of fun. If you think my rebirth (or should

I say the birth of my alter-ego) was fun, you’re going to love my work. I use my childhood toys as tools to create patterns and designs and a lot of times I will seek the counsel of my 3 year old son and we’ll create sculpture and prints together. I specialize in making tall, whimsical vessels out of clay that will hold your attention forever. Seriously, the techniques I use in creating layers upon layers of colors and textures will really take you to another place in your mind… maybe it will even take you through a “perfect storm” of your own.

To find out more about Darren, visit his website here.