Sun Mar 14 2010
Completely Kentucky sells several handcrafted drinking mugs, but David Kring’s stand out from the bunch.
His are sculpted into detailed faces of old men – bushy brows, big noses, wrinkles and all.
The comical characters look like they come straight out of Southern gothic literature. David gives each a name, and the likes of Dale, Anthony, John, Virgil, Cal, Hugo and Norman are looking for good homes.
Reaction to these fellows is varied, but most agree: They’re intriguing. It may not be the face you want to see while drinking morning coffee, but it’s definitely a conversation piece.
“I think it’s something they find interesting, because when you think of traditional face mugs, they’re not that elaborate,” David said. “I treat it more like a realistic face.”
Each $20 mug takes 30 minutes to an hour to sculpt, then there’s the firing and glazing. They’re formed out of red clay from the Kentucky/Tennessee region.
After David fashions the base, he uses his hands, tools and extra clay to pull out a face. The outside stays rough and earthy, but the inside is covered in a colored glaze.
“The main reason I do these face mugs is to keep me practicing,” said David, 23, a recent graduate from Transylvania University. “If I know I’m going to be doing a larger sculpture, it gives me practice on the eyes and nose and lips.”
He designs men’s faces “because I have a male face in front of me all the time,” but is studying the female face as well.
The Franklin County High School graduate didn’t expect to go into ceramics, but he enjoys the medium so much that he plans to get a graduate art degree.
“I lean toward Southern culture and trying to make Southern art,” David said. “I’ve been traditionally trained, and I’m trying to take this kind of stuff and form it into sculptures that tell the stories of the South.”
He draws his inspiration from folk art and music and Southern writers like Flannery O’Connor and William Faulkner.
“With folksy, there’s something you see in the face or the eyes or the wrinkles that tells you they’ve worked and lived a hard life, and that’s sometimes more notable with Southern tradition and history.”
Down the street, an example of David’s larger work guards the boot section in his father’s shop, Mitchell’s Clothing Store.
The life-size sheriff is dressed in black, and horns poke out beneath his hat.
“There’s something that ain’t quite right with Sheriff Buford” took a full semester to complete.
The mugs are more manageable.
“Usually, I’ll just put on a record and can make two or three within a record, and if I’m not in the mood, mugs are a side thing I can do that gets the ball rolling, gets me thinking on what’s next.”
David Kring’s face mugs
Location: Completely Kentucky, 237 W. Broadway
Phone: (502) 223-5240
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