Jack

Jack O'Leary's work is best described in an article about his internal approach to the creative process and materials written by John Mcgavern, Douglas Stafford, 1975. This letter of annotation was written to compliment an exhibition of Jacks work which was held at Trenye, Cornwall England in 1975

Letter from John Alfred Matzke:

Murph Cohon introduced me to Jack and Alice and the family in 1967. I had returned to Dartmouth College an angry and confused army veteran. Murph figured that Jack's and Alice's experiences and philosophies would help me make the transition to a saner life. He was right. Besides hanging out at the O'Leary's I brought other people to meet them. My parents enjoyed visiting whenever they came out from Michigan. While there were many differences in lifestyle, my parents were drawn by the quality of the pottery, and the honesty and simplicity that permeated the shop. My father was an old-style brew master and he approached that job as a master craftsman. Also, he was a fine amateur woodworker so he really understood the organized clutter and the art involved in forming a pot on the wheel and the patience and hope involved in the finishing steps and the final firing. However, he could never understand Jack's "rap." If Jack was demonstrating a technique or acting out his point my dad said he could understand. He loved to tell a story about a time when Jack got him to understand about "letting go" or "not being attached." We were drinking Ballentine Ale and Jack was in fine style but while Lyn and I were nodding in agreement, or at least acknowledgement, my parent's eyes were getting this glazed look. After a while they had selected some pieces of pottery to buy and were trying to get Jack to put prices on them. My father was really taken with a set of four porcelain cups. They were unlike anything in the else in the shop and Jack elaborated on the process and he was obviously, and quite appropriately, proud of the way they had come out. I cannot do justice to Jack's original or my father's story-telling interpretation but the point of what happened next stayed with my father the rest of his life and I have not forgotten it either. Finally, Jack holding up two of the cups and he said "they're just like stone - they're unbreakable!" With that he let one of the cups drop from about eye level. When the cup shattered on the floor Jack said "far out" and then he dropped the other one. Hardly a millisecond after the second, inevitable crash, Jack turned to us and said "Crazy man - want another Bally Ale?"

Reflections by Eric Von Schmidt, Artist & Folk Singer:

"But I loved him for those rambling Zen conversations in which great mysteries seem about to reveal themselves in the wink of an eye, a leprechaun grin, a cosmic pause. I would lose track occasionally, never contact, only the gist of the truths about to be revealed. For brief periods I wouldn't have the slightest idea of what he was talking about. It not only didn't matter, in a way it became the sweetest part. Most of the time I didn't know what I was talking about either. It was like a secret joke. So secret, in fact, that we weren't really sure of the punch line. Knowing that it was a joke was enough."

• Examples of Jack's work.