A few days ago, we covered the topic of Taos Pueblo’s traditional micaceous pottery, perhaps the Pueblo’s most iconic art form. Today, I want to introduce you to one of the Pueblo’s master potters, and her own signature series.
The piece in the photo above is by Juanita Suazo DuBray. She is Wings’s aunt, an elder, and also a self-taught artist. By her own account, she came to pottery later in life than many, but has made up for lost time with pieces of truly stellar quality. The “corn pot” is her personal trademark, and virtually every pot, bowl, olla, or vase that she creates bears the ear of corn in relief, as do her storytellers and figurative pieces.
We just pulled this piece out of storage; it’s one that’s been in our inventory since before we closed the gallery last winter, and it’s such a stunning work of art that I’m really delighted to be able to get it back on the Web site where it belongs. From its description here on the site, in the Other Artists: Pottery Gallery:
This stunning little pot melds a variety of ancient traditional patterns into a striking new whole. By Juanita Suazo DuBray, Wings’s aunt and one of Taos Pueblo’s master potters, it’s another in her trademark “corn pot” series. Here, she’s molded the Pueblo’s traditional micaceous clay into a beautiful little pot featuring the ancient “kiva steps” pattern carved out of the front. Twin ears of corn have been coaxed from the pot’s surface and stand out in stark relief beneath the steps; at their base, a small free-form cabochon of brilliant turquoise is embedded in the clay itself. This beautiful collector’s piece stands about five inches high by about five inches across at its widest point.
Micaceous clay; turquoise
$450 + shipping, handling, and insurance
Requires special handling; extra shipping charges apply
Photos of a few other pieces by Juanita are interspersed throughout the text below. Only the one above remains available for sale; the others have all long since found homes. Each image will, however, introduce you to another facet of her work.
Of all her work that we’ve carried over the years, this was her smallest pot, a mere three and a quarter inches high. Perfect for storage of seeds, herbs, small ceremonial items, it was a simple traditional pot with a single ear in relief at the center front.
We’ve already covered a bit about the centrality of corn to Pueblo lifeways, here. It’s been a staple food since time immemorial, and as such has always been respected and honored as fundamental to life — to survival, both individually, and as a people. This is true not only of Pueblo peoples, but of most (all?) of our peoples across the continent.
This was one of her “vintage-style” pots — a classic traditional shape in a small, practical size, but with a less refined, less polished surface. The orangey shade of the clay is, if anything, brighter in this one, and while the finish is more textured, less silken, the warm glow of the mica radiates from the surface. This one featured twin ears of corn appearing to grow from the same stalk.
Because of its existential importance, corn assumes a prominent role in spiritual, cultural, and artistic traditions, as well. Its centrality is evident in the presence of the Corn Maidens, female katsinam who represent fertility, prosperity, abundance, in the honor paid to it every year in the Corn Dances. As a symbol of fertility, it has meaning for young couples newly-wed.
This piece was a bit of a departure for her, and absolutely stunning to see: a wedding couple, wrapped in that traditional symbol common to peoples throughout Indian Country, the new blanket that represents their union. Here, the blanket is accented with her signature ears of corn, invoking blessings of fertility and prosperity for the newly-married couple. The bride’s necklace and earrings are made of tiny chunks of natural turquoise.
Corn is used daily in cooking, both for ordinary cuisine and for ceremonial feasts: in tortillas, in some types of frybread, in posole, in other dishes. Brilliantly colored ears of Indian corn serve as decoration and as offerings. And it appears as a regular motif in Pueblo arts, whether as a subject for drawing and painting, worked into Indian jewelry, or, as with Juanita’s work, sculpted from the very earth from which it comes, the earth that is used to mold and shape the pots and bowls that hold food and water.
Some of Juanita’s pieces are designed to hold actual water; some are for ritual use. This one is a traditional Pueblo wedding vase, to be used at the wedding ceremony; it stood more than a foot tall, with a glowing, velvety surface. Wedding vases feature twin spouts — again, a symbol of the couple’s union — and here she coaxed a pair of layered hearts from one, paired ears of corn from the other, representations of fertility and love.
The wedding pair shown above is not the only type of figurative piece she creates. She has adapted the traditional Pueblo storyteller and made it something wholly her own. This is only one example of the versions we’ve carried in the gallery over the years, but it was by far my favorite:
This piece stood nearly a foot high, and like her other storytellers, featured the traditional grandmother with her grandchildren climbing in her lap. Unlike the others, it was not painted. [I should note here that Juanita, like most Taos Pueblo potters, generally does not pain her pots, bowls, or vases, preferring to let the mica in the clay serve as the real adornment; however, like most artisans, she does usually add color to the clothing and faces of the storytellers.] In this instance, she chose to let the micaceous clay shine through the figures, using incising techniques and relief work to give form and shape to the faces and the figures’ traditional dress and the grandmother’s blanket. However, if you look very closely, you can see that the child over her right shoulder is still holding the signature ear of corn. And, once again, the necklace and earrings are made of small pieces of natural turquoise.
And this is the genius of Juanita’s signature pattern: It melds earth and sky, sun and soil, water and light, all brought together and fused within an object that exists only because of the joint efforts of all such elements, working together. An ear of corn, brought forth from the same earth that provides the micaceous clay that forms the pots for cooking and eating and storage; fed, watered, and nurtured by the sky and its sun’s light and the rain it visits upon the soil. And all of them, combined in a way that honors each separately and together, in perhaps the most important way of all: in an object of daily use, or survival, for The People.
The gold of the sun, the red clay of the earth, the corn that grows from the one, stretching toward the other: All are hallmarks of one of the most beautiful styles of traditional pottery I’ve ever seen, and all are created by the hands of an elder to whom Wings is closely related.
It’s an honor.
~ Aji
All content, including photos and text, are copyright Wings and Aji, 2015; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owners.
