Tribute to David Aurelius
Pond Farmer David Aurelius passed away on Monday, July 22, 2024 after living life to the fullest for ten-years with Parkinson’s Disease at the age of 73. David and his wife Jeanne were students of Marguerite Wildenhain for multiple summers in the 1970’s and they both attended her last teaching year in 1980.
David’s love of pottery began in high school. He studied first with Dean Schwarz at Luther College in Decorah, Iowa before he spent five summers studying under Marguerite. Jeanne and David lived an artistic life together in Ellison Bay, where they established Clay Bay Pottery . David was very involved in the Door County community making a huge impact in the arts as well as a business leader.
More about David’s life and legacy can be found by reading his obituary. Stewards of the Coast and Redwoods – Pond Farm is one of the charities listed that you can send a donation to in David’s memory.
Two days after his passing, a wonderful article was published in the Door County Pulse. In this article there is mention of 21 community mural projects organized by Jeanne and David that are a lasting memory of the significant impact they made in their community. You can see more photos of this inspiring contribution on their website.
From the Door County Pulse article
“I like to hand-build,” David said in a 2018 interview. “I like to, kind of, put things together.”
He said he could never have been a painter because he’d go crazy starting with a blank canvas every time, as opposed to molding clay.
“I start with clay, which actually is a blank canvas,” he said. “But you create a shape and then you decide what you want to put on it.”
In David’s 2016 oral history interview he shared some of his personal experiences with Marguerite.
“At the end of the first year, I think Marguerite probably liked me because I was quiet and just did my work. Because we met at the washtubs washing up one day, and she said “You don’t talk much, do you?” and I said “Sometimes.” That’s all I said to her, “Sometimes,” I just thought, “Boy, did I blow that one.”
“I mean I just had all this respect for her because she was born the same year my grandfather was born. Here she was instructing us and giving us all we could have. In fact, that’s the way she taught— you took as much as she would give you. Or she would give you an assignment and she would see which way you wanted to go with it. I didn’t really start clicking until my third year there.”
“I remember once in my second year I was in the big throwing room working on a tile and I had worked on it for like three days and I was kind of hiding. Kinda hunkering over the tile every time she came and she finally said,“Well, do you think you’re done with that?” I said, “Yes.”
In a letter that David wrote to Marguerite in 1972 he shares more about what working with her meant to him.
(From the book, An Eyewitness Anthology – Marguerite Wildenhan and the Bauhaus, Dean and Geraldine Schwarz, page 567) – Book available for purchase
“With the work that I am doing this month I am trying to work out solutions to problems without getting too complicated. It helps to think the problem through the night before and be able to go out to the workshop the next morning and work the problem in clay.
I find that I have a maturity to my work. I am able to work my ideas better knowing when to stop, when to change, and when to leave the studio when no solutions are evident.
This maturity has come about by my years working in clay, but the real structure has come from being at Pond Farm working under your instructions. But the greatest impact came this year with you and David <Stewart> preparing us to solve our own problems ourselves, and to be able to criticize our work. One of the most important moments was when you took all of us to the showroom to show us why you glaze pots and tiles. What an eye opening. A way of giving the pots more life and feeling.”
Pond Farmers Remember David:
From Wayne Reynolds
One summer David and I were in the small studio with the clay mixer. Marguerite told us to choose a project of our own. For some unknown reason David decided to make a Mouse Trap. This was no small Mouse Trap. It was a slab built and big enough for a very big mouse or a small possum. When Marguerite came around to see what we were doing he told her he was making a Mouse Trap. She said, “A Mouse Trap!” Then asked him how it would work? Listening to David try to explain to her how it would work and why the mouse couldn’t escape amused her to no end, as well as the rest of us.
Every summer Marguerite had a costume party at the large table in the lunch area. On year David came with his hair slicked down with a snazzy shirt and sun glasses, looking very cool. Marguerite asked him what he was, which he replied,”I’m tall, dark and handsome.” She didn’t get it, but we students loved it. And we loved him!!!
Remembering a Pond Farm Friendship
By Peder Hegland
My dear friend David Aurelius died July 22, 2024 after a 10 year journey With Parkinson’s Disease. Although David and I both got our start in Pottery with Dean Schwarz at Luther College, our friendship really had a chance to deepen at Pond Farm. David, his wife Jeanne and I were students at Pond Farm many of the same years in the late 1970’s. The intense and special atmosphere of the summer school forged a relationship that has endured to the present.
I remember especially a drive with David back home after the last summer session of Pond Farm ended, I think in 1980. 2000 plus miles from California to the Midwest. We were still glowing from a summer with Marguerite and David Stewart and talking about the pots we would make back at our studios.
Sometime in the next years the Aurelius’s invited me to sell my work at Clay Bay Pottery, their gallery in Door County. Through a combination of talent, smart decisions, very hard work and winning personalities David and Jeanne had created a successful studio Pottery business, the elusive goal of many a Pond Farm student. Their gallery featured their work as well as other Artists, many of whom were related to Luther College and Pond Farm. I had the opportunity to stay connected with the Aurelius’s through the gallery and go to Door County every year to visit and drop off pots.
A visit to Clay Bay was always fun and interesting. David and Jeanne seemed to know everyone in Door County and were important members of the Art community there. David had explored everywhere on the Peninsula and knew all the best places. Pond Farmer Larry Thoreson and his wife Judy lived nearby, Pond Farmers Peter Deneen, Mary Deneen and her sister Martha Winter also sold their pots at Clay Bay and we would all get together when visiting.
David was a skilled Potter and his pots were always well thrown and often quite large. He had an especially good eye for form. Later in his career he became interested in ceramic sculpture. David and Jeanne had different styles of decoration and that made their work together even more interesting.
My wife, Marilyn and I traveled with David and Jeanne on trips to Italy and later to Spain and Portugal. David had a unerring sense of direction. After one day in Florence he could already lead us through the confusing maze of narrow streets. Not long after the Italy trip in 2014 David was diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease. At the Pond farm reunion and exhibition in 2018 many people decided to walk up the long and winding road up to Pond Farm. David’s Parkinson’s was already hampering his walking but he bravely completed the climb to Pond Farm. He continued to work in the studio doing what his declining physical abilities allowed him to do. His sharp mind seemed unaffected.
It is my impression that David turned out to be the kind of Potter Marguerite and David Stewart hoped their students would become. A skillful dedicated craftsman and a creative Artist. Loved by his family, a valued member of his community and a very good friend.
Remembering David
By Jane Rekedal
David and I met at Luther College in the mid 70s, where we both studied pottery under Dean Schwarz. David and Jeanne were already a couple and a year or two ahead of me, but the pottery students frequently hung out together regardless of age or experience. As we are both blondes and were often in each other’s company, Jeanne and I sometimes were asked if we were sisters, which we are not, despite how much I felt that sisterhood. That would have made David my brother-in-law, which perhaps is how I often felt about him. Like family. Firm and solid, reliable and trustworthy. And so much fun. He had many close friends and was a leader rather than a follower, a welcome contributor to any conversation. Thus, when I heard of his passing, I felt that we’d collectively lost a Giant.
In a group of peers, David’s high spirits, warmth, and humor paved the way for meaningful gatherings and discussions of wild ranges of topics. His inventiveness and way of looking at the world reflected his creative ability and attention to detail. David was not afraid to experiment or go out on a limb, to push the envelope a bit further than one’s comfort zone, and to work through the problems to make a successful outcome. The many large tile murals he and Jeanne created were challenging on multiple levels, but David thought “large” and was not dissuaded by the physical or conceptional obstacles that might have discouraged others. His thrown studio work was consistently of high quality with bold designs and shapes, and when time allowed, he would sculpt large pieces of remarkably strong forms. I think David’s mind probably was always planning something new, which kept his work fresh and appealing.
David and Jeanne’s life together is enriched through their artistic visions and work, their attention to family and home, local community leadership, and church. They have attended many Pond Farm events and gatherings over the years and remain valuable members of the Pond Farm community today. We are blessed to have had time with David, and his presence will live on through his work and our memories.
