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Prime Times photo by Jim Craven From police work to pottery By John Darling In one of the big career shifts of all time, Frank Philipps quit the Oakland police force, moved to Ashland, went for certification as an elementary school teacher, then � just as he was about to complete his degree � took an elective in ceramics and found his calling as a potter. What caused this transition from motorcycle cop in turbulent 1972 Oakland, epicenter of draft riots and Black Panther skirmishes, to idyllic Ashland and contemplative creativity, painting sunflowers on stonewear? "I wanted out of police work and out of the Bay Area," says Philipps, dabbing sunflowers on a huge batter bowl in his back-yard ceramic studio. "It was Neil Young, back-to-the-country time. It took a lot of fortitude to quit and really change my life." Philipps, 58, apprenticed for years with some of the greats of the field � John Connors of Casa del Sol studio in Ashland and ex-Bauhaus artist Marguerite Wildenhain. He built his studio and kiln, worked West Coast craft fairs and, in 1992, with his wife, Rogue Valley native Nancy Philipps, started his own ceramics shop in Ashland. "The process (pottery) is incredibly satisfying," Frank Philipps says. "The discovery of forms is a lifelong inquiry. You keep seeing more and more possibilities. I feel new every time I sit down at the wheel. And the thing has to be solid craftsmanship. It�s got to work, be comfortable and fit in people�s lives. "I can�t imagine ever retiring from what I�m doing here." With age, Philipps found he needed a physical challenge to keep in shape. When his back went out 15 years ago, he cured it in open-water swimming, getting up at 4:30 a.m. daily for vigorous sprints at the Southern Oregon University pool with the Rogue Valley Master�s Swim Club. Philipps went on to compete in the San Francisco-to-Alcatraz swim and the 1.75-mile swim under the Golden Gate Bridge. "I was more frightened of the cold than the distance," Philipps says. "You can be literally shocked into immobility in the ocean. So I took lots of cold showers and soaked my feet in ice water. When I finally swam in the 58-degree water, I thought, hey, this is nothing. It was easy and joyful. I stopped in the middle of the swim, under the Golden Gate, and just looked around at the amazing beauty of it all. It was great." Swimming comes naturally to Philipps, whose great-grandfather started the nation�s first swimming pool in Cincinatti, Ohio, in 1868. His great-uncle invented the swim mask, his grandfather was a world champion diver, he said, and his father made it as far as the Olympic swim trials. The Philippses have raised two children in Ashland � Jerrod, now a computer artist in Portland, and Stacey, a chef in Multnomah. Nancy is the store�s bookkeeper and has turned the land around their Beach Street home into gardener�s showplace. Obituaries | Sports | Business | Classifieds | Tempo | Prime Times | So Oregon Sites | Outdoor Journal | Subscribe | Contact | Movies | Advertise | Real Estate Showcase | Archive | Editorials | Letters to the editor | Religion | Wake-up Call | NIE | Cyber Chef | Job Network | So Oregon Weather | WSJ Northwest | Forums | AP Wire | AP Money | F.A.Q. | Awards Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. The Community Newspaper Subsidiary of Dow Jones & Co, Inc Copyright �The Mail Tribune 2000, Medford, Oregon USA