A true handworker and artist.

The sun slants in at a December angle, illuminating the cherry table top and the hand made coffee mug, its maker’s stamp highlighted. The appealingly designed logo G S is for master mudman Greg Seigel, recently departed friend from Kentucky.

My day begins sitting up in bed holding a warm cup that he fashioned, and proceeds to a breakfast of oat cereal held in a bowl turned on his wheel.

I’ll wash my hands using a bar of soap that sits atop his alligator tray.

At lunchtime his hand-friendly shaped small vessel is perfectly sized for yogurt.

The generous handle makes it easy for my wife to take a cup of tea with her on her evening walk.

Greg’s handwork has graced our days, year in and year out, for a long time.

My connection to him is through music. He played horn in different music groups with mutual friends in north central Kentucky and his home town of Cincinnati. He not only played a good sax but wrote some very fine tunes. One is the haunting “Mr. Moto.” Click here to hear an arrangement of it and performance on synthesized piano by Michael Ward.

His son Max is a NY based jazz musician (Wynton Marsalis, Mingus Big Band, Slide Hampton) and composer. Here they are, playing together.

His wife Rebekka is an outstanding art quilter, and daughter Nellie is an artist and works for the Artist Frame Service in Chicago. Getting to know Greg and his talented family has made me appreciate that, for rare individuals, art is a way of being.

Greg was also a funny guy. I shared some of his wit on this blog post. He commented.

I wash and dry the mug, and bowl, and cup. It’s different now. Should a careless move result in a crack or a break, there are no hands working the wheel anymore. I won’t be returning from trips to Kentucky with pottery wrapped inside my duffel bag.

Greg left more than just the stamp on his works. Like all artists, he changed the quality of peoples’ lives.