It’s the last Friday in March, which means it’s also the final entry in this months’ Friday Feature series in recognition of Women’s History Month, highlighting the work of some of Taos Pueblo’s women pottery artists. Today, we close out the series with a piece by a master — a master who is self-taught, who came to her art later in life than many. She’s also Wings’s aunt.
I refer, of course, to Juanita Suazo DuBray. Anyone with even a passing familiarity with Taos Pueblo’s contemporary pottery and artisans will recognize her work immediately: Her signature corn pots have become one of the most iconic styles of Native pottery generally and Taos Pueblo pottery in particular.
We’ve introduced you to Juanita’s work before. As I said then, of her stylistic hallmark, the ear of corn:
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.
. . .
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.
In the quoted post, we took a look at a diverse selection of her work over the years: pots, wedding vases, storytellers and figurative pieces, all featuring the corn imagery, either as an accent or wholly organic to the design. But this piece (which is, as it happens, the last of hers that we currently have in inventory), summons another ancient motif, one just as integral to the people, and merging it into and then drawing it out of the very coils of the clay itself: the “kiva steps” pattern.
Steps. Footsteps. Earthen steps. Ritual steps.
All are part and parcel of this tradition and time, all path and prints alike in the sacred hoop, in the dusty roads of past and future that connect those alive today directly with the ancestors and with the children not yet born, with the spirits that have always been, and those that will become.
It’s a motif that finds expression in the art of this ancient place, a pattern directly named: “kiva steps.” Potters and smiths have used it longer than memory to evoke the spirit of this place and their people. It’s a combining of the sacred with substance, giving quite literally earth-bound tangible form to a central symbol whose deepest layers of meaning will forever remain closely held.
From the piece’s description in the Other Artists: Pottery gallery here on the site:
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
As a work of art, it functions perfectly: aesthetically beautiful and eminently collectible. But it’s so much more than that. As I said earlier:
It’s the heart and soul of life here, just as the kiva steps to which her design pays tribute lead to the earthen heart and soul of this place and its people. It’s the embodiment of the ritual steps of honor, of respect, of prayer to the spirits and the ancestors and the old ways that have always sustained the people; of the physical structure and the act of entering the sacred space to continue that tradition; of the making of steps, moccasin prints, that trace life’s hoop and leave the legacy of a clearly-marked path for future generations to follow.
It’s beauty and harmony, and the steps that lead to them, given corporeal form.
It’s a testament to how fully Juanita gives form to her culture, her traditions, her history, her very identity — not simply as a Native woman and artist, but specifically as a Native woman and artist of Taos Pueblo.
And that’s truly a thing of beauty.
~ 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.
