THE 54-year-old Rastafarian of Indian descent sat by the roadside on Melrose Hill, Manchester, his face a mixture of worry and concentration.

Humming to himself, he used his hands to skilfully shape a pot from the iron bath filled with clay and water at his feet.

His eight-year-old son Jaheim, who also sports locks, sat and watched closely.

For more than 30 years Ras Potter (real name Paul Wiles), who is from Greenwich Farm in Kingston, has been making clay pots.

However, he believes the art is dying and not enough is being done to get young people interested.

“Things really getting bad, nothing not happening for people involved in the arts,” Ras Potter told the Jamaica Observer.

“Right now, if tourists should come to Jamaica they are quicker to get art from the overseas market than from art produced by Jamaicans,” he alleged.

According to the potter, greater effort should be made to highlight the work of talented Jamaicans.

“Right now, Government looking to find solutions to unemployment, but they should be looking inward [rather] than outwards,” he said.

He is convinced that the talent to move Jamaica from its current state exists in communities across the island.

However he believes that for this to happen the authorities must capitalise on talent at the local level.