Sid Oakley

1932 - 2004

Graduate of

Campbell University

The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Awards

Distinguished Alumni Award from Campbell University

Designated a North Carolina Living Treasure by the University of North Carolina at Wilmington

His work is in the permanent collections of a number of major museums and is part of numerous corporate and private collections.

Sid was both a painter and a potter.

In 1968, he along with his wife Patricia, founded Cedar Creek Pottery and Gallery.

Their children, David and Lisa, grew up working in pottery. David is now a advertising copywriter and Lisa is a glass-blower.

Sid Oakley: Artist, Mentor, Friend

By Kathy Norcross Watts

Sid Oakley often sat before a low burning fire, sipping coffee, waiting expectantly for someone visiting his Cedar Creek Gallery to pause and chat. An inch of his white crew socks peeked from beneath his faded jeans, and his chambray shirt looked as worn as the bricks in the grand fireplace behind him. Sid had earned his seat, a metaphoric throne to his kingdom hidden in the woods outside of Creedmoor, NC, a Mecca of creativity celebrating craftspeople from across North Carolina and the country. A master potter and respected painter, Sid not only established high standards for his own work, but also, and perhaps more importantly, he nurtured creativity in those in whom he saw a passion for their craft. That eye for ability honed in on promising potters. When he saw strength in their forms, he offered space and equipment for young craftspeople to refine their skills. But his generosity was not limited to those who worked in clay. He was just as apt to challenge the cool teenager bragging about his guitar skills to play at his kiln openings to e-mail a woodworker and philosophize about furniture design. What made Sid most unique, however, was his paradoxical meshing of the past that had challenged him and the future he had created with his wife, Pat Leveque Oakley.

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