Ellen Ann Currans

Ellen Ann Currans

November 10, 1932 - April 11, 2023

Ellen passed away peacefully from cancer at home in Dundee, OR on April 11, 2023 surrounded by her loving children.

Born to Laurence E. and Frankie L. (Beale) Graham in Seattle, she was raised in Oroville, WA on an apple orchard. She attended the University of Washington, studying Clothing Textiles and Art. She met E. Thomas (Tom) Currans while in school; they were married September 17, 1954. First living in Pasadena, CA, while Tom worked at Electro-Optical Systems as a mechanical engineer, they grew their family by three: Cathy (1956), Kevin (1958) and Sean (1960).

Ellen begun potting in 1958. She worked to refine her functional pottery design, selling at local craft fairs. In 1964 she and Tom purchased a 68-acre farm in Dundee, OR settling and raising their family there. Tom worked at Tektronix in Beaverton while they farmed 35 acres of cherries, prunes and filberts. Ellen continued to run the house, take care of the family and develop her pottery. In 1974 Tom took leave from his job at Tektronix to design and build a home incorporating her artwork: tile countertops, windowsills, doorknobs and cupboard pulls. He helped as a silent partner doing unglamorous chores such as loading and unloading the kilns, mixing the clay, developing decorating tools and loading/unloading the pots from the truck. He never returned to Tektronix. It became a joint operation.

Ellen's goal was to create what her customers wanted. What they wanted was "her (functional) high-fired stoneware with the signature matte-finish glaze, (primarily) in a soft green hue or rusty beige." She wanted her work to be available to people like her who desired it. For that reason, she kept her prices low and enjoyed seeing her customer base return year after year. She was able to sell essentially everything she made.

In the 1970s she was one of the original 14 members of the Lake Oswego Crafts and Art League (LOCAL 14), a local women's artistic group that humbly began by having group sales of artwork in a member's garage. Ellen was invited to show her pottery in the second LOCAL 14 show. In her words, "Most of us were wives and mothers who had gone back to school and were painting or potting...We experienced being in arts groups where we weren't taken seriously by men or other full-time artists... (LOCAL 14) was a way to give support to one another... And, as a result (of LOCAL 14) more women have gone on to show in galleries and develop their art." LOCAL 14 still holds an annual show in the Portland area each fall.

In 1980 she helped start the Oregon Potters Association (OPA) as a way for potters to come together as a group to pay less for clay and supplies. Tom volunteered to transport the supplies to a common place for pick up in his old truck.

By 2001, as her hands became stiffer, she moved from wheel-based creations to doing mostly slab work. Easier on her joints, she was able to acquire her clay forms from mostly kitchen and thrift stores.

In her words: "Sometimes the end-product doesn't turn out the way you thought it would. Sometimes you like it. Sometimes you don't like it, but you work through a process to create it . . . My whole reason for going into pottery - at first as a hobby - was to create things that were pleasing to me... It's the process that's important...The creative process is what's satisfying." Turns out what was pleasing to her was also pleasing to her strong customer base.

A quotation from T.S. Elliot found in her shop affirms: "I loved to shape things. I loved form and color. And I loved the material that the potter handles. . . (Pottery is) ...decoration as a background for living; for me, (it is) life itself to be among such things.

If it is an escape, it is escape into living, escape from a sordid world to a pure one.

I want a world where the form is the reality, or which the substantial is only a shadow."

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Ellen was predeceased by Tom, her husband of 59 years, her parents, Laurence E. and Frankie L. (Beale) Graham and her brother Bruce. She leaves behind her children Cathy (Tim) Kirkendall of Fairbanks, AK, Kevin (Nancy) Currans of Philomath and Sean Currans of Dundee. She also leaves behind 9 grandchildren and thirteen great grandchildren.

In lieu of flowers, her family suggests donations be made to Signature Hospice, 1515 Portland Rd, Newberg, OR 97132. Her family was very pleased to have their assistance in this period of transition.

A private Celebration of Life will be planned later this year.