Remembering Gloria Harewood

THE EDITOR: No bells tolled on September 8 when our own peerless ceramic artist Gloria Harewood (1927-2022) passed on. I’ve seen nothing in print and only learnt of her death while scrolling YouTube a few days later when her funeral service suddenly appeared. Viewing it, I was both shocked and saddened.

Even though she was 95 and understandably many of her intimates have passed, the small gathering and the absence of a suitably respectful and admiring eulogy were still tragic.

One of our most consummate potters, Gloria’s work set a benchmark for excellence of skill and beauty few in Trinidad have matched, for the ceramics she excelled in is not the popular commercial ware to be found in many homes but the original artisan craft for which the likes of potters such as our own Bunty O’Connor, Vera Baney and Jamaica’s Cecil Baugh are acclaimed.

In fact, Gloria’s formidable resume reveals that she studied at Staffordshire Polytechnic, Britain, under Baugh who himself was a pupil of the legendary Bernard Leach.

Ceramics at this level is so demanding that I know of few people here who have mastered it. An appreciation of the work of world-renowned practitioners like Leach and the Japanese Hamada is valuable but more practically a scientific knowledge of the base materials is even more critical.

Failure to understand the properties of clays, glazes and kilns could be both disastrous and dangerous and Gloria had in fact worked as a research assistant at UWI’s Physics Department. She also taught Extra Mural Classes there.

Yet her work brought little notice outside the discerning few who would never miss the annual show when her exquisite pieces would be on sale. She never really sought it and was more interested in imparting her knowledge to anyone as passionate about ceramics as she was.

It was therefore in the late 1980s and already an established artist potter that Gloria Harewood sought to start the Ceramic Association of TT with a view to infecting others with her love for ceramics. This is when I met her and the sweet memory of our brief but joyful friendship has never left me.

A small group gathered at her home in Boissiere Village, on Saturdays I think. Level of skill varied widely but she was determined that everyone, even the novice, should be encouraged to grow at her own pace while championing the achievements of the more advanced members.

She was never dismissive of the vernacular tradition of the East Indian potters like the Goolcharans and Bennys. In fact, she sought instead to help us recognise the skill and inventiveness inherent in their work and I grew to greatly respect the finer points of the tradition where before I regarded only its purely functional aspect, as a source of deyas and flowerpots.

Gloria’s husky laughter at these sessions masked a rigorous intellect and unshakeable integrity and a desire to pioneer a cadre of knowledgeable potters and ceramicists who would grow the tradition locally.

It was there we learnt something of the geology of Trinidad, the whereabouts of our finest clay deposits, the rock types needed to develop high-firing glazes and to that end field trips were organised to locations where we could see samples of the raw material.

One trip took us to a Valencia quarry where we learnt that excellent stoneware clay, a discarded byproduct of the process, was a valuable resource which could in fact have supplied the needs of our local potters.

Sadly, I had to move from Port of Spain but by then the initiative had floundered. The craft continues to be carried forward but we are poorer for not having benefitted from Gloria’s vast experience and warm personality.

The memory and achievements of our national treasures like Gloria, Amelia “Bessie” Carrington (the artist’s collector), Embah, Amy Leong Pang, Ramdhanie Shamma, Sotero Gomez, Growling Tiger, Andrew Beddeau, Wilfred Strasser and many more must never be allowed to fade.

It is why I am so elated to learn that the Astor Johnson Repertory Dance Group has endured 50 years.

My admiration for their dedication; my lament for the loss of Beryl McBurnie’s Folk House; mixed emotions over the installation of Glen Roopchand’s Tribute painting to Carlysle Chang’s deliberately destroyed masterpiece, The Inherent Nobility of Man, at Piarco Airport in1976.

For once more, I like others must reiterate that its obliteration through neglect and indifference is what’s wreaking havoc: it is in the deliberate and loving embrace of our cultural and natural heritages that our nation’s salvation lies.

They are the soil, we are the seeds.

N MC SWEENEY

Toco