Retired Tupelo doctor returns to pottery, his first love
Mar. 7—TUPELO — When Ken Kellum was doing his medical residency program in New Orleans in 1999, his wife, Laura, gave him a gift certificate for a pottery class.
And he found his calling.
"I was good," Kellum said. "I fell in love with it. My pottery teacher in New Orleans offered me a job. She wanted me to throw for her."
But Kellum, 51, stayed the course. He finished his residency, and then entered a fellowship program to specialize. For 18 years, he was a nephrologist, or kidney doctor, in Tupelo before retiring in 2018.
"I got burned out on medicine," Kellum said. "It was never my intention to be a doctor forever. I never wanted to be a career doctor, like my dad."
But he never burned out on pottery.
When he was practicing medicine, and he'd had a particularly rough day, he'd go out to his garage-turned-pottery-studio and unwind.
"I'd come out to my garage for a couple of hours and when I'd leave, everything would be all right," Kellum said. "Actually, work was cutting into my pottery time."
Kellum said it took him a while to relearn the skills he'd mastered 20 years earlier.
"It took a long learning curve to figure it out again," he said. "I'm better now then I was the first time through. The hardest part is centering a piece on the wheel — that takes forever to learn."
Most days, Kellum spends a couple of hours in his garage on the wheel or at the kiln — anything more than that and the pottery-making becomes a chore.
He has two wheels — one for small pieces, and one for large. He buys his clay from a place in West Point, which gets it from Pennsylvania. If he sets his mind to it, he can throw 20 pieces of pottery in an hour.
So far, he's made bowls, pitchers, vases, plates, mugs, piggy banks, teapots and large serving pieces, along with holiday-themed items, like jack-o-lanterns, snowmen and Santas.
"Some parts are more fun than others," he said. "Glazing is my least favorite part. I like the repetitiveness of the wheel. I like to make stuff, but I don't want to do the glaze and the finishing."
Lately, Kellum has gotten into hand-built pieces, but most of what he does is on the wheel.
"I'm like a mad scientist," he said. "I get to do whatever I want to out here. If it works, that's great. If it doesn't, that's OK, too. As a former doctor, I like to say, 'If you mess up, nobody dies.'"
Doing for others
You won't find Kellum's artwork, called KK Pottery, in a shop anywhere. He prefers to give his pottery away, or donate it to a good cause.
"Making it makes me happy," he said. "Selling it doesn't make me happy. It's awkward for me to take money for what I make. I don't do it for me. I do it to make others happy."
When Kellum was practicing medicine at Nephrology & Hypertension Associates, he made some pieces that were sold with the proceeds going to the dialysis unit. He also sold pieces twice at Celebration Village to benefit the North Mississippi Kidney Foundation.
His latest fundraiser will help the Regional Rehabilitation Center in Tupelo. The Alan Bank Memorial Tennis Tournament will take place April 30 and May 1 at the Tupelo Country Club.
"Dr. Ken did a fundraiser for us last year," said Robby Parman, executive director of Regional Rehab. "He's been very supportive of us."
For the tennis tournament, Kellum made 20 plates and fired them in the kiln to the bisque stage. He took them to Regional Rehab, where young clients decorated them using special crayons. After a glaze and a second firing, they're now ready to be donated as prizes for first-place winners in the tournament.
"This is what makes me happy," Kellum said. "This is my pleasure. It's my enjoyment."
The tournament is a member-guest event, and the cost to enter is $80 for one event or $130 for two events.
"We wanted to give the first-place winners something unique," Parman said. "It's meant a lot to our kids to do the plates. They look amazing. I think the players and participants will really enjoy them. It will mean a lot to the individuals who get them."
But Kellum's not stopping there. He recently purchased an old hair salon on North Gloster to use as a community art studio. So far, it has no name.
"I wanted a space where someone could come in and do their art if they didn't have a space to do it at their own home," he said. "The goal is to have an art atmosphere — to have someone come in to paint or do glass, and teach a class if they want to. And I want to have a tea once a month — Indian tea, Russian tea. This is all a dream right now. This is magic wand stuff."
