I’ve been reading The Many Faces of Mata Ortiz, (a very good book that I would highly recommend) and at the same time working on several new pots. Which has got me thinking about what is traditional southwestern pottery and where it crosses the line and just becomes pottery.
Traditional southwest pottery is obviously pottery that is inspired in some sense by the prehistoric cultures that flourished here centuries ago, and therefore would include similar construction techniques and design elements. In my opinion part of the beauty of southwestern pottery is that it is made entirely from local materials, it is wholly a product of the land it represents. The construction of southwest pottery has always been hand made using various methods (paddle and anvil, coil and scrape or even pinch pots) but never thrown on a wheel, slipcast or any other method not used by the ancients. The final distinguishing characteristic is the design on the pots surface, allowing for a wide range of artistic expression, the design is always based, however loosely, on those of the potters who went before us.
This is how I would describe traditional southwestern pottery, there are many fine potters working in the southwest making beautiful pieces using other techniques and I don’t mean to take anything away from them. There are potters out there however who are not making pottery in the traditional ways but are marketing it as such, this is dishonest and not fair to unsuspecting and uninformed consumers who think they are getting the real deal.
In this book I have been reading, it talks about some potters in Mata Ortiz using “commercial clays” and even toner cartridges in the making of vessels, and many of the designs are, in my opinion, moving too far away from the Casas Grandes tradition. Not that there is anything wrong with that per se, just that these should not be marketed as traditional southwest pottery, such wares belong in the store next to the fine Oaxacan pottery, not in the Indian arts stores. I believe the same is true of the Acoma potters who sell slipcast pottery or any other artist who will break with tradition in the name of sales or artistic expression, there needs to be some integrity involved here.
I should be firing a few vessels this weekend if the weather doesn’t get in the way, hopefully I will be able to post some pictures here next week.
Tags: Mata Ortiz, Pueblo Pottery
Posted in: Pottery
