CONVERSATIONS

shortly before last Christmas a friend of mine, and
many other B.C. Potters, passed away. Jack Wells died
in his sixtieth year at his home in North Vancouver.

“or the last seven years I had used his studio and
kiln. We became fast friends - enjoying laughter and
work, even through his difficult times with mobility
loss, insulin shock because of his diabetes and
Parkinson's disease.

Jack had been a student of John Reeve at U.B.C. and
had made some of those large vigorous pieces John's
presence must have promoted. He was a businessman
(Wells Can Co.); a radio ham operator in his teens; a
thinker and talker; a wine maker; an electronics nut;
but most of all, I think, a person who loved to know
how things worked. He admired machines; loved working
at his metal lathe building and repairing things: and
was perhaps best described as an inveterate tinkerer.

His diabetic condition ruled out, in his thinking,
several careers. It wasn’t expected that he would
live beyond 45 years of age. Clay - and kilns and
potters tools - must have come as an unexpected surprise
to his life. A few days before he went we unloaded a
kiln and I will never forget the warm look in his eyes
as he held a large bowl we both felt had some strength
to it.

He was a complex, generous, atubborn eccentric, kind
man.

If there were any weaknesses of character they were
most obviously displayed to those attempting to sell
obscure objects or services over the telephone or at
his decor. His scorn could singe.