Ozark Roadside Tourist Pottery: The Legend of Harold Horine
A selection of Ozark Roadside Tourist Pottery pieces (which are actually made of concrete) from the collection of Daniel Mathis. The large blue vase is 14 inches tall. All objects illustrated are in the collection of Daniel Mathis. On a day in 1935, ceramist Harold Horine and his mother, Maude, packed up their car in their hometown of Hollister, Missouri, and headed west. The road lay open before them, a black, sun-baked line cut into the landscape of the Dust Bowl. They traveled, not to sell Harold’s pottery, but to sell his process for making it. It is unknown who was driving, which is indicative of much of Harold’s career. This Ozark Tourist Pottery vaseis 14 inches tall. Born in 1898, Harold struggled to hold down a job but excelled at tinkering, which is how we like to describe what many artists do while waiting to catch their break. Harold’s came when, using his experience as a house plasterer, he invented a process to create concrete vessels without an exterior mold. He decorated the forms in drippy swirls of bright colors and called them Como-Craft, after nearby Lake Taneycomo. The pots, which Horine sold from a roadside stand, gained popularity among tourists, and either Harold or his mother had the idea of exporting the production process to other regions—for a fee. For a reported $500, a person could get instruction from Harold Horine himself, and set up their own version of his workshop with an exclusive license to make and sell the pottery within a defined area. Today, Como-Craft style pieces pop up all around the United States, from Missouri to Arizona to Oregon, thanks to the regional makers Harold trained and licensed. Most