I wrote in this space yesterday about my childhood confusion with regard to how the cosmos calculates the four seasons: At least through kindergarten and first grade, I believed that the first day of each season was marked by the first day of a particular month. The ghost child who resides deep in my soul still greets this day as the first day of fall.
It’s not, of course. The calendar is firm in its observance: The first day of fall this year will be September 22nd, exactly three weeks hence. Meanwhile, the earth here has long had other ideas, the first signs of autumn having appeared some thirty-two days ago, while the calendar yet read July.
Today thus far has been, perhaps predictably, both summer and fall, sun and storm. We have had the sun for the first half of the day, bright and hot and just a little too humid; now the mercury has dropped beneath the powerful pressure of the storm, which is bringing us thunder, lightning, wind, rain, and hail all at once.
It’s a message of sorts, this return of a full monsoon on a day that seemed to have left it behind: There are forces beyond our control, and circumstances too, and we should not regard the praying season as over just yet. “Just yet,” of course, might better be phrase as “never,” because as our peoples know, there is never a time when prayer is not in season.
Still, we sit at a threshold now, and we know that we can expect increasingly uncertain weather and temperatures until winter settles in for her full run. It puts me in mind of some of the works by one of Taos Pueblo’s up-and-coming young potters, one who mixes and melds media and materials as effortlessly as her works combine the spirits of multiple seasons. for the month of September, we will use this space each week to highlight the works of a different Taos Pueblo potter, and today we begin with Wings’s niece, Camille Bernal.
Among the half-dozen or so works of hers that we once had in inventory, only three remain. Each is similar in media and, to some degree, color choice; each differs fairly drastically from its kin in shape and figurative style. We begin with what has always been one of my favorites, one that crosses between the pale hues of summer and the tri-colored hallmarks of fall, that evokes the snows of winter and the catkins of spring. From its description in the Other Artists: Pottery gallery here on the site:
Flowers and Checkerboards Traditional-Style Pot
Camille Bernal (Taos Pueblo) creates a masterwork that blends old traditional shapes with contemporary expressions. Checkerboard patterns in warm red ochre arise and criss-cross like ancient paths from the base of the pot, their lines growing organically into the stems of gently-blooming flowers. Flower groupings are tipped in alternating Santo Domingo White, Laguna Blue-Gray, and charcoal shades. Stands 5″ high by 5.25″ across at the widest point, with a 2-7/8″ opening across the lip (dimensions approximate). Other views shown at the link.
Tewa clay; plant-based paints
$325 + shipping, handling, and insurance
Requires special handling; extra shipping charges apply
The flowers are, I suspect, really tulips, but they have always reminded me most of the catkins and pussy willows so common to the lands my own people call home. They also resemble the prayer sticks used in some cultures, transcendental tools for talking with the spirits. They are all cross-hatched entirely by hand on a smooth clay surface painted the palest of shades off pure white, with a texture at once like silk and velvet. Given its classic shape, it seems a good choice for a prayer bowl used in the traditional way.
The second of Camille’s works featured here today is another of my favorites, for other reasons: It has less to do with color and pattern than with form and shape, a graceful, elegant vase wrought in a classic Art Deco motif. For art, architecture, typography, fashion, and a host of other fields, the Art Deco period has always been one of my personal favorites, and this vase captures its iconic lines in the archetypal colors of the Native Southwest. From its description in the same gallery:
Untitled Art Deco-Style Vase
This compact vase evokes one of the first heydays of modern Indian pottery. Fashioned in Art Deco style by Camille Bernal (Taos Pueblo), it’s hand-coiled of a a beautifully warm red clay, accented with a gentle pastel shade, hand-painted long-stemmed flowers arising delicately from the base and encircling the whole. Vase stands 7-1/8″ high by 4.5″ across at the widest point, with a 1-1/8″ opening at the lip (dimensions approximate). Top view shown at the link.
Tewa clay; plant-based paints
$250 + shipping, handling, and insurance
Requires special handling; extra shipping charges apply
The flowers that emerge from the base to climb the sides of this vase bear no particular resemblance to prayer sticks, but they are their own message: one of emergent new life that renews itself, year after year, from the red earth of this ancestral place. In that regard, they are perhaps representative of their real-life counterparts, a prayer fulfilled and a dream come true simply by virtue of their existence.
It is the last work, however, that incorporates other small spirits, some that here we most often associated with summer, but that are in fact known the world over in all weather and season. Set at the cardinal points of this miniature pot are representations of Scarab, the hard-shelled beetle that some of the world’s indigenous cultures hold sacred. From its description, also in the same gallery:
Scarab Miniature Pot
At the Four Directions, tiny scarabs rest among delicate blue flowers on this miniature traditional-style pot by Camille Bernal. Hand-coiled of earthy red clay, the little pot bears a silky slip in an ivory shade, accented with scarabs and plant life in soft natural colors. Pot stands 2.25″ high by 2.75″ across at the widest point, with a 1.25″ opening across the lip (dimensions approximate). Top view shown at the link.
Tewa clay; plant-based paints
$125 + shipping, handling, and insurance
Requires special handling; extra shipping charges apply
We have this week been focused on more traditional messengers of the spirits, such as bird and butterfly, but the insects all have their role to play, too. In a time of accelerating climate change, their patterns and habits have much to teach us, and we would be foolish to ignore their message.
We would also be foolish to fail to pray for their well-being, for it is the creatures of the earth who help to ensure our own survival.
For now, each of these works serves as a prayer in its own way, too: a prayer for seasonal spirits. That’s a message we can all heed, and we should.
~ Aji
All content, including photos and text, are copyright Wings and Aji, 2017; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owners.
