Shaping a New Life at the Potter's Wheel

Lawyer Found Path From Cancer to Art

Willie Leftwich was petrified of his treatment for colon cancer -- chemotherapy one week every month for a year. Burdened with worry, this patriarch of a prominent downtown law firm, a counselor to the powerful, couldn't think, couldn't file a brief and, at times, couldn't eat.

Then one day, Leftwich, whose firm's notable clients had included Marion Barry, gave up the law. He just walked out of the firm he founded, Leftwich & Douglas, and didn't return. "Folks in the office thought I'd be back in six months," Leftwich said with a laugh. "I never went back. It was time to move on."

But moving on wasn't easy. He still needed something to do to keep his mind off the cancer. A friend suggested a hobby: pottery.

As far-fetched as the idea might have seemed at the time, it sparked Leftwich's curiosity. He sought out classes, studied artists and visited museums. Pottery seemed relaxing, less intense than the writing classes in which he had enrolled.

Once he put his hands in the muddy mixture, pottery became Leftwich's second passion. He can sit for hours in front of the spinning wheel molding the clay. He makes, displays and sells his bowls, trays and pots. He has a Web site, http://Williepots.com . And as he tells it, he owes his recovery to the craft.

"Pottery saved my life," Leftwich, 68, said.

On a recent day, Leftwich received a double dose of good news. The cancer had not returned. Health concerns after medical tests during the Christmas holidays were unfounded. He had just returned to the District from his Sanibel Island home on Florida's Gulf Coast for a final test.

If relief was not enough to make his day, Leftwich also learned that his artwork would be exhibited at Zenith Gallery, 413 Seventh St. NW, near MCI Center. Some of his pieces are showcased at a Georgetown gallery, but that doesn't compare with the size and prestige of being at Zenith.

"I never thought of myself as being that good of a potter," Leftwich said. "It's fascinating to people that you can be a lawyer and a potter."

Zenith owner Margery E. Goldberg, who turns away more artists than she accepts, saw something special in the six Williepots now on display.

"His pottery is beautiful," Goldberg said. "He's got elegant forms. It's not really expensive. It's usable. People like that."

When Leftwich turned to pottery, he wasn't seeking to please others, become rich or start a career. Leftwich graduated from Howard University in 1960 with a degree in electrical engineering and worked at NASA on high-profile aerospace projects. Seven years later, he graduated from George Washington University's law school.