MOLDING A LEGACY
Artist David Shaner formed an esteemed career from clay
Growing up in Pottstown in the 1940s David Shaner spent most of his spare time shoveling coal or working with concrete in his father’s businesses. During that time it never occurred to him that he would spend the rest of his life working with his hands, setting aside the shovel and the trowel for the potter’s wheel and the kiln, and that he would become one the most highlyregarded clay artists in America.
David Shaner was born in Pottstown, Nov. 11, 1934, the fifth and youngest child of John Y. Shaner and his wife Emma Shirey Shaner.
Everybody in the Shaner family including David worked hard. At an early age his father put him in charge of maintaining the family yard and vegetable garden. When he became older he spent every day after school and all of Saturday shoveling coal at the Shaner coal yard on South York St. and later when his father went into the prefabricated concrete business, building all sorts of things from burial vaults to septic tanks, earning $6.00 a week
Along with the work ethic came strong lessons in self reliance. David recalled that when he was twelve his father “took me out and bought me a new coat and told me that from then on I would be buying my own clothes.”
In 2001 during the course of an interview Shaner stated that both his parents were “very industrious.” When asked if he had “gotten a good deal of [your] genes” from them, Shaner wryly quipped “I think I was overdone on the industry part.”
David Shaner’s love of art soon became apparent. In an interview he stated that “from the 1st grade on, when the art teacher came into the class room, I was intrigued by the arts” and when he grew up he “hoped to do something in the arts, but never knew what direction it might take.”
Shaner was also very determined to go to college, despite his father’s insistence that he enter the family business like David’s brothers.
David’s desire to further his education had a strong ally in his mother, Emma. His sister, Louise Shaner Roberts remembers how their mother. “strongly wanted David to go to college” and how she “really pushed for him to be able to go.”
Emma Shaner carried the day and for this and probably countless other
reasons always held a special place in her son’s heart, as David expressed it decades later, was “wonderful and I always felt close” to her.
In fall of 1952, by the dint of much hard work and saving, Shaner entered what was then Kutztown State Teachers’ College, about 30 miles north of Pottstown, because it was known as a good place to study art education.
Two things happened to Shaner at Kutztown that would determine the course of his life. He met Ann Elizabeth Stoner, an elementary education major from Lititz, Pa. David and Ann were married in 1957.
From then on Ann Shaner was her husband’s partner. More than forty years later Shaner gratefully stated I couldn’t have done what I did . . . without the help of my wife, Ann, . . . my co-worker and soul mate for 43 years.”
It was also at Kutztown that Shaner first worked with clay. Its effect on him was almost magical. In his words, “When I first touched [it] I knew that that was the medium I wanted to work in.”
David and Ann spent the 1st year of their careers, 1957-58 teaching in the Berwyn School District in Berwyn, Pa.
That summer, following their marriage, still intrigued with working with clay David went to “look around” at the New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University, Alfred, N.Y., which at the time had one of the finest pottery programs in America.
Shaner loved what he saw, wanted to study there,
but literally had no pottery that could demonstrate his talent.
The school’s director invited him to “come up for the summer school anyway, and we’ll see how it goes.” That’s all Shaner needed was a chance prove himself. He and Ann quit their teaching jobs at Berwyn and moved, lock stock and barrel, to Alfred.
By the end of the session Shaner had demonstrated his talent and was accepted into the program with a casual invitation to “stick around.”
With their first child, David, arriving and little money coming in it was hard work and lean times for the Shaners at Alfred, but in 1959, after two and a half years of “very intensive study” David earned his Master of Fine Arts
Upon receiving his degree Shaner took a position teaching pottery and recreational crafts at the University of Illinois at Champagne Urbana.
While still at Illinois Shaner spent some time at the Archie Bray Foundation—at the time a tiny pottery with a one-man staff in Helena, Montana
In June 1963 he was offered a job there. Knowing that the position would allow him to grow as a potter, Shaner eagerly accepted. Again, David and Ann now with three children set forth on a new adventure. (David and Ann Shaner had 4 children: David, born in New York, Catherine and Cedric born in Illinois and Coille Ann born in Montana)
Shaner spent the next seven years at the Bray, serving from 1964 as its director. During his tenure he brought financial stability to the foundation and established its reputation for “breeding good potters.”
Shaner was successful at the Bray, but eventually had the desire to “go off and be a potter” on his own. This led him in 1970 to move north to Big Fork, Montana.
In response to David’s desire for artistic growth the Shaner’s never failed to grasp the nettle. This time as Shaner recalled “we scrapped together everything we could from our retirement and savings, and even borrowed from Ann’s parents” and bought 60 acres of beautiful Montana
country just outside of Big Fork.
A home and a complex of pottery buildings were built a permanent garden was established, and on Labor Day 1970 Shaner’s kiln (which he built) was fired.
On their land the Shaners put down roots. When their youngest daughter started school, Ann went back to teaching, but she and the children all pitched in and helped with the pottery. In a sense David Shaner, like his father and grandfather, became the proprietor of a family business
Over the next quarter century Shaner worked hard not only to support his family but also because of his deep love for creating things from clay. His work became very popular with the general public and collectors, and also earned him the praise and respect of his contemporaries in the world of ceramic art.
In 1995 he was diagnosed as having ALS or “Lou Gehrig’s Disease.” a disease of the nervous system that causes death through a degeneration of the brain and spinal cord.
He continued to practice his art as long as possible, making pots by hand when he no longer had the strength to use a potter’s wheel, and with the assistance of Ann, who would put the pieces in the kiln.
Shaner’s last work was in preparation for a show in Seattle in 1997. Following that he gave all his equipment to various potters and closed up the studio.
David Shaner died with his “life long friend and partner, Ann” at his side on July 2, 2002 at his home in Colorado.
Peter Held, Curator of
Ceramics at Arizona State University wrote “Over the course of his remarkable career, David Shaner pursued an uncommon vision, following the daily rhythms of life while leaving a visual legacy for future generations. But then again, that’s what you might expect from a clay artist from Pottstown.”