SPEARS GALLERY
“ I’ m married to pottery, but I’ m having an affair with jewelry,” is how he puts it.
Both Larry and Jan are natives of Columbus, Indiana, and got to know each other when she was working in a Columbus record store, The Music Box, and Larry kept coming in to hunt down the music he loved.
“ He was a handsome man,” Jan said.“ But he was very interesting as well, and he had the same taste in music that I had.” She said they both loved classic rock and folk-flavored songs, and Larry was a good guitarist.
At the time, Larry was working at a greenhouse in Columbus, but made weekend trips to Nashville for inspiration, especially from the late potter John Mills.
“ I came over to watch John throw pottery,” Larry said.“ And Larry Pejeau was also an inspiration. He knew different techniques.” Both encouraged him. Jan worked in advertising at The Republic newspaper in Columbus, had a knack for sales, and was a natural to take over the business.
Shortly after Larry and Jan were married, they decided to take a vacation to Gatlinburg, Tennessee, hoping to pay for the vacation by selling Larry’ s pots to galleries in the tourist town. Soon, a gallery there hired both Larry and Jan, and they lived there for 14 years.
But family members on both sides were still living in Indiana, and they returned to be closer
to relatives. Jan scouted locations and found a home in southern Brown County with a second unfinished house on the property. The Spears deemed it perfect for a studio, so Larry built a kiln, turned the second house into a studio and gallery, and continued practicing his art while showing his pieces in arts and crafts shows across the nation.
In 2011, they opened Spears Gallery at 15 S. Van Buren St. in Nashville, which grew into one of the anchors of the arts community. The original homebased gallery still serves as a working studio for Larry and the couple’ s two sons, who have been selling their art for more than a decade.
Tyler sculpts intricate ceramic figures, including dragons and imaginary animals, such as those found in Lewis Carroll’ s“ Alice in Wonderland.” They are formed in clay, then carefully glazed and fired. The fantasy characters sometime come from his childhood interests, such as the dragons in“ The Lord of the Rings.”“ Dad has taught me all kinds of stuff,” Tyler said. And it was Larry who got Kyle interested in photography when Kyle was a student at Indiana University and had not declared a major.
“ He handed me a camera and said,‘ study photography.’”
Since then, he has travelled across the U. S. and internationally taking fine art photos. Sometimes he researches a photo shoot beforehand, but often the best photos are one he stumbles onto, he said.
Continued on 24 Sept./ Oct. 2025 • Our Brown County 23