{"id":2496,"date":"2013-11-04T23:21:59","date_gmt":"2013-11-05T04:21:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/getitright.pmss.net\/?page_id=2496"},"modified":"2021-05-21T23:49:41","modified_gmt":"2021-05-22T03:49:41","slug":"john-spelman-iii","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"http:\/\/staging.pinemountainsettlement.net\/?page_id=2496","title":{"rendered":"JOHN A. SPELMAN III"},"content":{"rendered":"
Pine Mountain Settlement School
\nSeries 09: Biography – Staff\/Personnel<\/h5>\n

JOHN A. SPELMAN III
\nArt Instructor, Houseparent,
\nArtist-in-Residence 1937 – August 1941<\/h2>\n
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TAGS<\/strong>: John A. Spelman III ; artists ; poets ; writers ; art education ; linoleum blocks ; woodcuts ; prints ; landscapes ; Asheville (NC) Farm School ; Black Mountain College ; Progressive education ; Barbara Spelman ; Christmas cards ; commemorative calendars ; print shop ; William and Fern Hall Hayes ;\u00a0<\/strong>Spruce Point Lodge, Hovland, MN ;<\/p>\n

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These are my hills…I bought and paid for them with work…not of the plow and pick…but by painstaking observation…the work of the pencil and the brush…I was not born among them…yet they are mine…for what I have seen I have made anew, part of myself…part as preservation of what shall pass….\u00a0<\/em>[<\/em>(From an untitled free verse poem by John A. Spelman III in the April 1987<\/a> issue of\u00a0Notes from the Pine Mountain Settlement School<\/em>]. JAS II<\/em><\/p>\n

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102 John Spelman III. [burk_people_102.jpg]<\/p><\/div>\n

John A. Spelman (1912-1969) could indeed lay claim to the mountains of Appalachia as he skillfully captured their essence in drawings, paintings, prints, poems, plays, and teaching during his stay at\u00a0Pine Mountain Settlement School from 1937 to 1941. To this day, he is primarily remembered and admired for his linoleum-block and woodcut prints representing the lives and environment of the mountain people.\u00a0In the sense that Spelman’s strongest works were landscapes and rural scenes, he followed in the footsteps of his artist father, John A. Spelman II who was an award-winning artist and a graduate of the Chicago Art Institute.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

But Spelman developed his own creative style, particularly during his years at the Settlement School.\u00a0His interest and work in the medium of linoleum block printing has attracted many followers over the years and continues to define the mountain cabin in ways that convey the dignity and beauty of that vernacular architectural style.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

John Adams Spelman III was born on July 16, 1912, in Oak Park, Minnesota, the only son among the four children of John Adams Spelman II and Florence Seis Spelman. His sisters were Ellen G., Marguerite, and the youngest, Barbara.<\/p>\n

Spelman came to work\u00a0at the Asheville Farm School in the Swannanoa Valley, near Asheville, NC, in the mid-thirties, where students were required to work on campus and perform community service, in addition to their academic work, in order to graduate. (In 1942, this school merged with Dorland-Bell School, a mission school, to later become what is now Warren Wilson College).<\/span><\/p>\n

In approximately 1936, he possibly attended the experimental Black Mountain College (near Asheville, NC), a liberal arts school strongly indebted to John Dewy and the\u00a0Progressive Movement in education\u00a0and maintained for a brief time an extraordinary faculty. Although Spelman indicated that he had an association with Black Mountain College, there is no record of his enrollment, a fact common with some students who passed through the institution for a brief time, or, in Spelman’s case, possibly visited frequently. Although Black Mountain was small, it attracted many of America’s influential visual artists, poets, and designers as instructors including Josef and Anni Albers, John Cage, Merce Cunningham. Buckminster Fuller and others. Spelman’s time at the\u00a0nearby Asheville Farm School, where he was an art instructor in 1936-1937, allowed him to practice his skills and to enjoy the association\u00a0with\u00a0artists at Black Mountain College. This association may have been his “attendance” as the two institutions are only a few short miles from one another.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"John

John Spelman seated in Laurel House interior at Christmas, c. 1938 [X_100_workers_2562a_mod.jpg]<\/p><\/div>\n

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John Spelman at Pine Mountain Settlement School. Source: Paul Hayes Photograph Album.[hay_IMAG0180_mod.jpg]<\/p><\/div>Considering his experience with the ambiance and philosophy of the two innovative North Carolina schools, Black Mountain College and the Asheville Farm School (later Warren Wilson College), it may be understandable why Spelman ended up at Pine Mountain Settlement School by 1937 as an art instructor.<\/p>\n

The Director of Pine Mountain Settlement School in 1937 was Glyn Morris,<\/a> a progressive educator who had been strongly influenced by Dewey and many of the ideas endorsed at Black Mountain and at Warren Wilson which began as a farm school. At Pine Mountain, Dewey’s pragmatism was combined with a deep respect for the land and for farming. Further, many of the administrators and teachers at the schools communicated regularly with one another.<\/p>\n

Though Warren Wilson’s President Bannerman gave Spelman a cautioned endorsement, it was clear he recognized the young artist’s\u00a0 talents and he encouraged Morris to hire him on a trial basis and if acceptable then offer him a full position. This was the agreement that Spelman accepted. Spelman obviously felt at home at Pine Mountain and he stayed for nearly three years. During the three years he made life-long friends and eventually encouraged his sister, Barbara Spelman<\/a> (later, Mrs. Collin F. Allen) to join him following her graduation. She worked in the School’s Office as a bookkeeper, and by all accounts was quite skilled. Though her tenure at Pine Mountain was short, Barbara, like her brother John, established lifetime friendships with many of the staff at the School.<\/p>\n

The Artist’s Works<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"The

The Chapel. A woodcut by John A. Spelman, published in the October 1938 issue of Notes from Pine Mountain Settlement School. [pmss_archives_notes_spelman_1938_oct_004.jpg]<\/p><\/div>Spelman’s writings drawings and prints depicting Appalachian homes, people, the Pine Mountain Settlement School’s buildings and natural surroundings, became almost identifiable with the School, having been included in many of the School’s publications, such as Notes from Pine Mountain Settlement School<\/em><\/a>, Christmas cards, and commemorative calendars. Eleanor Roosevelt wrote about Spelman’s\u00a01938 School calendar<\/a>\u00a0in her syndicated newspaper column, “My Day” on January 22, 1938:<\/span><\/p>\n

I have received a number of calendars<\/a> from the Pine Mountain Settlement School. This school in Harlan County, Kentucky, is devoted to the education of mountain children. I am delighted with the linoleum cuts which have been used in making up this calendar. Mr. John A. Spelman III made them and he has chosen to portray scenes from the mountain environment and has done it delightfully. The students set up the pages and printed them.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

\"Book

Book of woodcuts and linoleum-block prints by John A. Spelman, 1938 (Reprinted 1978). [pmss_photo_spelman-book.jpg]<\/p><\/div>One of Spelman’s major works was his 1939 publication of a book containing a collection of his prints: At Home in the Hills: Glimpses of Harlan County, Kentucky, Through the Media of Linoleum Block and the Woodcut.<\/em> August D. Angel<\/a>, a printing instructor at the School, wrote of Spelman in his memoir:<\/span><\/p>\n

John A. Spelman, a new volunteer art instructor, who worked in conjunction with [Art Teacher], \u00a0Mrs. [Alice] Shera<\/a>, also spent a lot of time with me in the print shop because of his interest in printing. He lived alone in a one-room log cabin midway uphill on the path between the swimming pool and Farm House.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

First, he would make preliminary sketches of off-campus mountain homes, fences, or buildings that intrigued him. He would redraw or refine a sketch in his cabin or the print shop. Then, Spelman would transfer the drawing onto linoleum, which was glued on a type-high woodblock, and tool the linoleum with hand-held gouges. After proofs were made, Spelman would re-work the linoleum until he achieved the desired effect. When his printing was completed, he would store the blocks for future re-use. Spelman also made a few woodcuts, but he preferred to work with linoleum.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

\"Silver

“Aunt Sal’s Cabin” by John A. Spelman III. Source: Silver Jubilee issue of Notes from the Pine Mountain Settlement School, 1938. [PMSS_notes_1938_jubilee004.jpg]<\/p><\/div>\n

August Angel recalls that,<\/span> “<\/span>When I later left Pine Mountain Settlement School in the summer of 1937, Fred J. Burkhard of Liberty, Kentucky, replaced me as printing instructor at Pine Mountain. He worked with John Spelman to print, publish, and bind a book of the stored linoleum cuts. It was the first edition of <\/span>At Home in the Hills..<\/span>.. Some years [later] I relocated to Viper, Kentucky, and established a modern print shop. As a fundraising promotion in 1978, Spelman\u2019s<\/span> At Home in the Hills<\/span> got its second printing and was given to any alumni or friends who donated $25 or more to the school.”<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

August Angel reprinted Spelman’s original 1938 book,\u00a0At Home in the Hills,\u00a0<\/em>in his print shop in Viper, Kentucky in 1978.<\/p>\n

From approximately 1939 through 1942, Spelman was also staff artist for Mountain Life & Work<\/em>, a quarterly journal published by the Council of the Southern Mountains. His linoleum-block prints, sometimes full-page, accompanied articles, poetry, and editorials and reflected his interest in the quiet dignity of the mountain people and the charm of their environment. He expressed this in his poem, published along with his print of a tree against a mountain background, in the winter 1940 issue of Mountain Life & Work<\/em>\u00a0:<\/p>\n

So much more of beauty now<\/em>
\n Upon these hills lies bare<\/em>
\n The hemlock’s green against the snow,<\/em>
\n The hill-climb’s whitened stair.<\/em><\/p>\n

Many of the linoleum blocks left at the School by Spelman found their way into later publications such as the Conifer<\/a>,<\/em> the Pine Cone<\/em><\/a> and the Pine Mountain Notes<\/a>.<\/em> Also, in later years some of his prints were reproduced by former printing teacher August Angel and were offered for sale to benefit the School. A limited number of these prints are still available through the Pine Mountain Settlement School Gift Shop.<\/p>\n

\"John

John Spelman III with his father John Spelman II at Spruce Pt., June 1940. (Photo by William Hayes) [grand_marais_24.jpg]<\/p><\/div>After Pine Mountain<\/strong><\/p>\n

Spelman left Pine Mountain several months after his father’s death in May 1941. He continued his correspondence with Pine Mountain friends and colleagues particularly the Hayes family. In 1940 he had invited William Hayes<\/a> and his new bride, Fern Hall Hayes<\/a>, to Hoveland, Minnesota, where his family had their summer home and fishing camp. “Spruce Point Lodge,” possibly named by the Spelmans, was a place that he\u00a0and his family kept\u00a0as a special retreat. John III, like his father, would return often to the cabin on the shore of Lake Superior and to those places that held a special corner in his visual memory.<\/span><\/p>\n

JOHN A. SPELMAN III: GALLERY I – Spruce Point Lodge, Hovland, MN<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\t\t