Local Treasures: Agnes Stark

For more than 50 years, this popular potter has stayed productive and happy by doing what she loves.

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If you are friends with Agnes Stark — and for an 86-year-old she has many — then you know she’s connected to lots of people, here and around the region. But you might not know she has important links to American history as well. Her family stretches back generations in Baltimore, Maryland, where her great-great-great-grandfather was Major George Armistead, the commander in charge when Fort McHenry was attacked by British soldiers during the War of 1812.

For context, it was during the Battle of Baltimore that Francis Scott Key wrote “The Star-Spangled Banner.” Of course, Stark’s reputation isn’t based on her noteworthy heritage but rather her prolific work as a ceramicist. Since buyers first began discovering her pottery back in the 1970s, her reputation has flourished. Today, she’s in the same category as Mississippi’s McCarty potters, a well-known, respected — and collectible — regional artist. 

Stark’s passion for creating has never dimmed. She still spends every week throwing pots and firing her kiln in preparation for the three pottery shows she holds each year. In addition to a local clientele, collectors often drive in from Mississippi or Nashville to buy her work, which includes handsome pots, voluptuous vases, and charming, slab-built churches. But most sought after are her stoneware place settings, still available in three distinct finishes of white, cream, and blue. 

“Anytime I go anywhere, people will tell me, ‘I drank coffee out of your mug this morning!’” she says with pride. “And now I have granddaughters who are buying my pottery.” That personal connection customers have to her work proves gratifying for Stark, who remains an optimist at heart.

“I’m a big dreamer,” she says. “You never know when you’re going to produce the best piece you’ve ever made.”

East Coast Upbringing

Agnes Gordon Stark was born and raised in Baltimore, the second of six children. She attended The Bryn Mawr School, a prestigious college preparatory for girls where the coursework was rigorous and Stark periodically struggled, largely because her interests weren’t rooted in academics.  

“We lived on four acres with a forest right behind our house,” she says, “and I loved spending time in the woods.”  

There, her imagination ran free. She created fairy gardens, watched birds with her sister, Henrietta, and climbed trees so she could feel the branches sway in the breeze. She focused on her studies and went on to receive a bachelor of fine arts from Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, where she majored in theater and became the first non-actor to win the Outstanding Senior Student award. Ever a pragmatist, she chose to focus on theater’s technical side — set design and lighting — because “you’re always guaranteed a job.” She also received a scholarship to the University of Michigan for graduate studies in theater which led to summer stock work. 

She moved to Memphis in 1964 to join Front Street Theatre as an assistant to the set designer, creating the set for Damn Yankees. The company, located in the basement of downtown’s Hotel King Cotton, was founded in 1957 by George Touliatos and Barbara Cason. Cason would go on to Broadway and Hollywood. (You can view clips of her old Ty-D-Bol bathroom cleanser commercials on YouTube if you’re curious.)

A Career Takes Shape

Through Front Street, Stark found a lifelong friend in her colleague, San O’Brien, who ultimately introduced her to brother Ted Stark. Although Ted was 35 and Agnes just 26 (their age difference was considered a bit scandalous at the time), they quickly fell in love and in five months were married.

“He was wonderful and so supportive,” she says of their happy union.

While the newlyweds were off on their honeymoon, San signed Agnes up for art classes at the Memphis Academy of Art (later Memphis College of Art), throwing open the door to her future. Stark quickly discovered she had a natural gift for working in clay. “I was able to make a pot the first time I sat down,” she says. “I realized it fit me. It felt good.” 

She studied for several years, working under ceramicist Thorne Edwards, then continued at Louisiana State University while Ted earned a degree in landscape design. It was during those early years that Stark also gave birth to their son, Gordon. 

“You have a talent,” she observes. “If you can find it, it will make your life special.”

In 1970, when the Starks returned to Memphis, Overton Square was heating up. John Simmons, an entrepreneur with a knack for spotting trendy furnishings, opened several shops on the Square, including Sycamore, Forty Carrots, and The Potter’s Shed. Simmons had commissioned work from Lee McCarty, the well-known potter in Merigold, Mississippi, but he was in search of more variety. Stark had pieces she’d produced while at LSU, so “we spread out my pottery in the yard and Simmons wanted all of it!”  

His purchase jump-started her career, enabling Stark to buy a kick wheel and a kiln as her family settled into their home near the University of Memphis. 

“I had no idea what I was getting into with clay,” she says. “I studied forms and shapes, but I wanted to make sure you saw that each piece was handmade, that the fingermarks indicated it was handmade. I used my imagination to make things that were functional.” 

Her work resonated with buyers and for decades, sales were brisk. “I sold so much pottery during the ’70s, ’80s, and ’90s,” she says. “If you go to estate sales around Memphis today, you’ll see my work.”

Agnes and Ted also loved the country, so in 1976, they bought 35 acres of farmland in Eads. Ted gradually transformed the corn fields by planting trees and digging a pond, but his dream was to find a log cabin. The Starks eventually spotted an ad in The Commercial Appeal and drove out to the farming community of Milan, Tennessee, where they found a handsome, two-story dogtrot cabin made of cypress that dated to 1880. The farmer had been using it as a barn, but Ted was smitten. They quickly struck a deal with the owner, had the cabin dismantled, and hauled it back to Memphis. The total venture cost them $7,000. 

It took a while to find carpenter Lou Stackley, but with his help and that of a plaster worker, the structure was handsomely reassembled. Ted also installed the cabin’s beautiful heart of pine floors, wood that came from the Sears Crosstown building before its rebirth as Crosstown Concourse. They even built a small studio on-site for Stark to sell her work. It became a perfect retreat.

Leadership in the Arts

As her career grew, Stark took on a number of leadership roles in the arts community. She founded the Memphis Association of Craft Artists and helped launch the Pink Palace Crafts Fair. She was among 250 craft artists to represent the U.S. in the World Crafts Council Conference in Kyoto, Japan, in 1978. She was also president of the Memphis Potters Guild for 18 years.

As we talk in the cabin’s living room, she points out a handsome ceramic mosaic on one wall, made to commemorate her retirement with each tile created by guild members: Mimi and Katie Dan, Joel Alexander, Linda Ryan, Peter Sohngen, and others. The room is cozy, with a wood-burning stove and mementos that attest to the happy memories made here before Ted passed on at age 68 in 1997.

Stark’s working studio has always been in town, just off the kitchen, in fact, and a brief trot through the sunny back garden to the one-car garage she commandeered years ago. “It’s a perfect studio. It really works,” says Stark.

Meaning it’s convenient and self-contained, which turns out to be a good thing with clay, whose chalky nature turns everything the color of sand. Over time, Stark has enlarged the space, providing ample room for her potter’s wheel, gas kiln, wash basin, and storage, with jars of supplies and bags of sand neatly piled along the walls, and shelves above where bowls and plates await firing. 

Stark hasn’t strayed too far from the techniques she learned back in college. Instead of buying ready-made clay, she measures and blends each batch by hand in a big mixer. The same goes for her glazes, using formulas she’s long since committed to memory. By doing this, she maintains control of her quality. When customers call hoping to replace a plate or bowl, she can produce the same glazed piece from the set they purchased 20 years ago. 

For Stark, the artist’s life has been a gratifying one. She loves making people happy with her pottery.

“You have a talent,” she observes. “If you can find it, it will make your life special.”

Agnes Stark Pottery Holiday Show 2024

DATES

Friday, December 6 / 11 a.m. – 5 p.m.

Saturday, December 7 / 11 a.m. – 5 p.m.

Sunday, December 8 / 12 noon – 4 p.m

LOCATION

12685 Donelson Road,  Eads TN, 38028