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About the Curator
My name is Tony Chavarria. I am from Santa Clara Pueblo, a small village in north-central New Mexico. Santa Clara is known for highly polished red and black pottery, often decorated with deep carved designs. My grandmother made this pottery and taught all of her children, including my dad. They both taught me. I have been fortunate to have grown up around Pueblo pottery and it's cultural background and later, as I entered the museum field, to work with examples made by potters centuries ago to the present. Pottery has been around me all my life. From this emersion, I have been fortunate to know each of the women in this exhibition. Each has a dynamic, generous spirit that is seen in their work. I am pleased to introduce you to these amazing women through Mother Clay's gift.
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Jody Naranjo
Naranjo comes from an extended family of artists and scholars and has been an active potter since her youth. She is a prolific, innovative artist who experiments with design, color and texture. She often uses the sgraffito technique, creating elaborate designs that enchant from a distance but are truly revealed upclose. Her pieces invite you to connect with her work in the same manner she created them. Her graphic style engages the viewer and is a contemporary expression of her world, just as the petroglyphs pecked in rock by her ancestors reflected theirs. Naranjo has collaborated with other Native established artists to create works in other media, such as a bronze sculpture but also returns to work with Mother Clay.
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Jody Naranjo
Santa Clara Pueblo (Kha-po' Owinge') , New Mexico
Jar decorated with Thunderbirds, 2022
Clay, slip
On loan from the artist
This jar is in the form of an olla, or water jar. Ollas have been made in the Native Southwest for ages and this contemporary example is highlighted by rain imagery, Thunderbirds, a common motif for many tribes, soar above banks of clouds releasing lightning and rain.
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Jody Naranjo
Santa Clara Pueblo, New Mexico
Jar decorated with a fish, 2022
Jar decorated with horses, 2022
Clay, slip
On loan from the artist
Sgraffito, an italian word meaning "to scratch", is a decorative technique in which the slipped and polished surface of the pot is scratched away with a line tool, exposing the color of the clay underbody. Jody Naranjo uses sgraffito to create elaborate motifs that give a sense of texture to her designs. Although it is often considered a contempary technique, sgraffito can be found on examples of Pueblo pottery that are centuries old.
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Jody Naranjo
Santa Clara Pueblo, New Mexico
Jar decorated with Dance Maidens holding pottery, 2022
Clay, slip
On loan from the artist
Each of the women on this jar are wearing different styles of tabletas, a headdress worn in Pueblo dances. They are mostly made of wood and painted on both sides with rain associated designs. When worn in a dance, cloud-like down feathers are attached to the top. Each of the dance maidens depicted carry different types of clay jars, subtly revealing the feminine connection of earth, clay and spirit.
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Judy Tafoya
Tafoya grew up in a family of potters and small jars and figurines as a child. She reconnected with the clay in her 20s, as a common occurence for many potters return to Mother Clays gift to engage with a cultural practice, provide for their families and be creative. Tafoya works in the traditional deep carving technique on highly burnished blackware associated with Santa Clara pottery. Using this as a foundation, she shapes burnished blackware associated with the Santa Clara with designs from the past and her vivid imagination. Judy Tafoya continues to make beautifully innovative pottery and carry an acient tradition into the 21st century.
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Judy Tafoya
Santa Clara Pueblo (Kha-po' Owinge') New Mexico
Water Jar with Rainbow Band, Engagement Basket, Four Turtles, 2022
Clay, slip
On loan from artist
Blackware pottery is the most common in the Pueblos of San Ildefonso and Santa Clara. Before firing, several coats of clay slip high in iron oxide are applied and the jar is burnished with a smooth stone, creating the polished surface. The pottery is then fired outdoors using a reduction method-during the firing the pieces are covered with pulverized manure which reduces the oxygen and traps the carbon resulting in blackened pottery. If the pottery is not covered during the firing, it oxidizes and results in polished redwares.
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Judy Tafoya
Santa Clara Pueblo, New Mexico
Feathered Friends Jar, 2022
Clay, slip
On loan from the artist
Birds of all types are revered in Native American cultures. Seen as messengers with deep connections to the spirit world, many types are used in elements of dance and prayer. Along with the birds and an unfortunate worm, carved feather designs and rectilinear spirals are depicted, which can represent wind, water, balance and migration.
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Judy Tafoya
Santa Clara Pueblo, New Mexico
Large jar with Avanyu, 2022
Clay, slip
Museum purchase with funds provided by W. Groke Mickey, 2022.9.1
This jar depicts several representations of water and rain, a precious and sacred resource in Pueblo lands. Clouds, rivers, and rain are shown merged with the ancient figure of the Avanyu. Avanyu is the Tewa word for the ancient deity of the plumed, or horned serpent. It is the guardian of waterways and harbinger of storms. Symbolic of the great importance water holds in the lives of the Pueblo people, the Avanyu is it's protector and provider. Avanyu likely has cultural connections to the feathered serpent, Quetzalcoatl, of Mesoamerica.
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Kathleen Wall
Jemez Pueblo, New Mexico
Peaceful Presence: Hopi Maiden with Clay Pots, 2022
Hand coiled with traditonally processed Jemez Clay, painted with slip and underglaze
Museum purchase from the funds provided by W. Groke Mickey, 2022.17.1a-c
Artist Kathleen Wall describes this work: "This sculpture is of a Hopi Maiden dressed in a black manta and red underdress. She wears a Hopi young maiden hairstyle and wears Hopi style earings. Her belt represents a woven cotton sash, and she has deer hide moccasins. She holds a clay jar with two additional jars that represent her tribe."
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Kathleen Wall
Wall grew up in an artistic family and has worked with clay since her hands could shape rudimentary figures. Through the teachings of her family and constant effort, she developed into an accomplished potter and has been a self-supporting artist since high school. She is known for her large figurines, often depicting Koshares, the sacred clowns who act as a conduit between mere mortals and the supernatural. Her figures are often smiling, radiating a joire de vivre and reflecting Wall's optimism and love of her culture. Her work displays excellent craftmanship and technique yet always carries a human and personal touch.
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Kathleen Wall
Jemez Pueblo, New Mexico
Gentle Spirit Holding Pottery, 2022
Hand coiled with traditionally processed Jemez Clay, painted with slip and underglaze
On loan from the artist
Most Pueblo pottery is made with the coil-and-scrape technique, in which coils of clay are added to a base form and then scraped smooth. This is repeated until the desired height or shape is revealed. Many potters speak of how their intent is often blended with the form that the clay itself wishes to become. This figure demonstrates Kathleen Wall's mastery of this technically difficult process.
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Kathleen Wall
Jemez Pueblo, New Mexico
Koshare Sings, 2023
Hand coiled with traditionally processed Jemez Clay, painted with slip and underglaze, dressed with corn husk and leather
On loan from the artist
Koshares are the sacred clowns of the Pueblo people. They are known for being jesters who reinforce societal norms and provide social commentary through parody and mockery. They also serve as intermediaries between mortals and the supernatural realm. There are several types of koshares, and they have different names depending on the village origin. The koshares revealed by Kathleen Wall always show a cheerful gentleness.
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Place and Pottery
The land of the Pueblos is the high deserts of the Southwest. Mountains and plateaus are divided by skinny rivers, the arid climate can be gouged by flash floods and cacti can be covered with snow. In these places, different clay sources are found, leading to the different pottery styles seen at different Pueblos. Now largely made for scale, pottery still defines Pueblo art. Yet, in most Pueblo languages, there is no word for art. The equivilent is a phrase that roughly translates as "to make well." This related to another action, "to be well." This wellness that is constantly nurtured and renewed through different cultural practices, such as ceremonial dances, prayer and working with the earth.
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The Pueblos
Pueblo is a Spanish word meaning village or people. In 1540, Spanish explorers gave this name to the Native people who had lived for centuries in small agricultural communities in what is now called the American Southwest. They encountered nearly a hundred villages, and today there are nearly 20 Pueblo communities in this region. Each Pueblo shares a common history and similar cultural aspects, yet each is unique, with its own stories of origin, systems of governance and artistic tradition.
One common cultural tradition is pottery. Pottery is used and made in every Pueblo. From the distant past to the present, Pueblo potters have created works of beauty and utility. Since it's distant origins, women have been at the forefront, nurturing the relationship with Mother Clay.
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Welcome
For Pueblo people, clay is life, clay is us and clay is our mother. Mother clay is the shared source of our emergence and the creations made of her essence. Through prayer and offering, clay and temper are gathered and processed to create the clay that is shaped and decorated then transformed by fire into vessels that carry food, water, spirit and culture. Pueblo pottery is a connection to the living earth, to the ancestral past and to the hoped-for future. It is physical and ethereal, art and utilitarian, strong yet delicate. Discover Mother Clay through the work of three Pueblo women: Jody Naranjo, Judy Tafoya and Kathleen Wall, each artist revealing a unique expression of our Mother Clay.
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