The application of fine art ideals to ceramics and other crafts is not often successfully accomplished.  Obie Clark has worked as a studio potter since 1974, creating products of such widespread interest to operate a viable business based on hand built works of art, dissolving the line between fine art and craft.  Born in 1948 and raised in Laurel, he earned his B.F.A. from the University of Southern Mississippi in 1972 and his M.F.A. from the University of Mississippi in 1988.  Between those years he pursued further study at Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts in Gatlinburg, Penland School of Crafts in North Carolina, and at the Chimneyville School of Crafts and Design in Jackson, under Robert Reedy.  Since his first showing in Laurel in 1967, he has exhibited extensively across the country and is an active member of the Craftsmen’s Guild of Mississippi.  A resident member of the artists’ colony in rural Taylor, Mississippi, Obie incorporates his deep feeling for the natural world into his work.  His elegant pots often begin with taking “an item from nature and letting natural design elements dictate the shape of the piece.”  Obie describes the process as “an intuitive act, taking in my environment through my eyes and then letting it out through my hands.”