REFIND: Michael SimonFran & Barry Palevitz Collection April 29th, 2022

Selected works by Michael Simon from the Fran & Barry Palevitz Collection.

Statement

"Fran and I bought our first piece, a teapot, in Palo Alto, when I was a postdoctoral fellow at Stanford. The next was a large bowl with images of blueberries, while on a trip to Maine around 1975. In Athens, our first purchases were from Alice Woodruff, who remains a treasured friend. Our interest in studio pottery persevered for many years. We loved the pieces we bought, but best of all was meeting the artists. The memories will last forever, of visiting with Michael Simon and Ron Meyers, interviewing Warren MacKenzie, schmoozing with Will and Douglass, meeting Ellen Shankin, the Johnsons, Karen Newgard and Silvie Granatelli, and so many others. We made many potter friends locally, like Geoff Pickett, Nancy Green and Dewitt Smith. I revere potters' creativity, most recently that of Native American artists like Juanita Fragua and Laura Gachupin of Jemez Pueblo in NM. Collecting clay art was an important part of Fran's and my marriage, and will always be a treasured part of my memory of her. Fran was a blueberry fan who tended our shrubs with love. When I look at that early bowl from Maine, she is still with me." -Barry Palevitz

Barry will be using the proceeds from the sale of his and Fran's ceramic collection to help pay for his granddaughter's college education.