Fired from Jamaica's heart.

• Author: Smith, Helen Kitti
• Position: Gallery Place

As I navigated the roller-coaster road inland from Jamaica's resort town of Ocho Rios, I swerved to miss a falling palm branch that grazed my windshield. I was sensitive about driving, attentive to this verdant yet narrow, snaking route, and thankful to simply creep along it. All the more so as I rounded a bend and found a horse stopped right in the center of the road. I yielded to his bulk and waited until he was well on his way before I resumed mine. Yet none of these rural mishaps would interfere with my mission: I was on the potter's path, determined to locate the Wassi Art Studio in Great Pond, Jamaica.

Shortly, two saffron walls appear, capped by hand-painted azure tiles spelling out "Wassi Art." They herald the turn-off to the studio. I have arrived, finally, at the birthplace of what many consider to be the most creative and vibrant ceramics center in the Caribbean.

Wassi Art is owned and operated by Terri Lee, a Jamaican of Chinese descent, who enjoys recalling her studio's inspired beginnings for visitors. It was the late 1980s, and Terri, an account management professional with a lighting firm, was alone one afternoon as she headed home from the office. Suddenly, she says, she heard a voice say to her, "Leave this and work with your hands." She stopped and turned to acknowledge the comment, but no one was there.

Those words replayed in her head that evening. She could not figure out their meaning. She thought that if it meant to undertake something with art, well, she was not an artist, indeed far from it. But mantra-like, the words repeated. Though they were still unclear, she knew that they represented something life changing for her. She knew she must heed their command and take action. The next day when she went to work, she quit her job.

A few days later, site asked her sister to accompany her on a trip to Miami, a place they often visited. But this time her focus was to incorporate the words she heard. She recalled a friend whose hobby was sculpting in clay and remembered how that work looked compelling: it was interesting, seemed fun, and certainly done "with your hands." Was Lids what the words meant?

In Miami, she and her sister went shopping for ceramics supplies: slip molds, clay, glazes, and many books about the art of ceramics--a subject about which they knew nothing. They returned to Jamaica with their supplies and began working.

A few years later, Terri met and married Robert Lee, a successful graphic artist and...