Still fired up

When a young Judy Greene begged her mother for four pennies to buy some art materials and arrived home with thumb tacks, she says she was “the laughing stock of the house for a long time”.“I didn’t know what drawing pins were and I saw this ad in the window for drawing pins and I thought they were something you would draw with. Drawing pins!” she exclaims laughing. One of Ireland’s most famous potters, Judy explains how she ended up making a living out of clay. “I always loved art. From the time when I was very small I was drawing on brown paper. The Bauer in Athlone had a great approach to education and I was always encouraged to stick with art.”And stick with art was exactly what the young Athlone lassie did, securing a scholarship to a teacher training college in Southampton where she intended to train as an art teacher. It was there that her love affair with clay began. “I did my Foundation Year where you did a bit of everything and I just loved pottery. I loved the discipline of the wheel. You did all the subjects associated with education. It was a time when you had to be a nurse, teacher or go into the bank. That was success; that was the choice when you were a girl.”After completing the course, Judy got “itchy feet” and decided to travel to Botswana in Africa for a year where she taught sewing in a secondary school and set up a sewing centre. “I loved it and stayed on for another year,” says Judy explaining that while the area was poor, she didn’t witness any extreme poverty. “I think it was a bigger shock if you were coming from somewhere like America or London, but coming from Ireland where we didn’t have a lot it was easier to adjust. But re-adjusting back here was very difficult; to repatriate yourself after such a simple way of life.”On her.....