The Potter, The Sculptress, and the Eagle

August 21, 10:30 AMEntertainment ExaminerMike Parker

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Duty. Honor. Courage. Courtesy. And a Warrior Spirit.

The husband and wife team of Robert and Tracy Sugg form the nucleus of The Potter’s House Fine Arts in Jackson, Mississippi. This uber-talented couple has been featured in major magazines, profiled on television shows, and praised in public forums.

Robert is an accomplished potter, a combination art and craft whose practitioners are revered to almost rock-god status in most countries around the globe, though in this age of mass production there is not much demand for such a skill in this country. Robert’s creations range from the aesthetic to the functional to the whimsical, but all share his unique touch.

In the United States Tracy is the rock star of the family, because let’s face it, being a sculptress is just a whole lot cooler than being a potter. An accomplished artist, Tracy has studied and taught in the U.S., France, and Italy. Her gorgeous works of figurative art have been displayed at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point and on the Rotunda at the Russell Senate Building in Washington, D.C. Her life-sized and beyond bronzes honoring Revolutionary War heroes, Civil War activists, and contemporary statesmen are displayed in public parks and private collections across the country. She is in demand as both a performer (yes, she does sculpt live) and lecturer. Yet, she finds her most valuable works of art to be her four children.

I have collected pieces from both of these artists. I obtained another objet d‘art more than thirty years ago from an unknown artist. It was a square of white silk, finished on the edges and hand embroidered with a stylized eagle in one corner. It is the only one of its kind in the world. It cost me nothing. And it cost me everything – for it represented all those traits I believed in and to which I had committed my life. When folded on the diagonal, that square of silk became a neckerchief; it was presented to me when I earned the rank of Eagle in the Boy Scouts of America.

During the past thirty years there has been a not so subtle shift in American culture. In some cases, rugged individualism has given way to petulant narcissism. It is not uncommon in our inelegant age to see a bumper sticker plastered on a car that proudly proclaims, “My Kid Can Beat Up Your Honor Student,” as if stupidity merged with bullying brawn is somehow a virtue to be extolled. So when a teenager bucks the trend by embracing such qualities as truth, honor, brotherhood, and duty he or she is just as likely to be jeered at as applauded. 

Philip Sugg, Robert and Tracy’s firstborn son, is one of those young people who buck trends. He recently completed all the requirements and is soon to be promoted to the rank of Eagle Scout. I am not a huge art collector, though as I said I do have pieces of both Robert and Tracy’s work. And that square of silk that was hand embroidered by that unknown artist from so long ago. Today, I’m passing that objet d’art on to Philip for his personal collection as a reminder that art should pleasure the eye, lift the spirit, reflect the truth, and compel us to soar – like eagles.