We began this week looking at building blocks, a motif that, in our small world of this place, assumes a very real, tangible, fundamental form. As the week progressed, we broke apart those blocks to examine the very substance from which they are made, getting back down to earth in ways literal and metaphorical.
And in the process, a new foundational image arose: that of the salvational spirit who, so the story goes, quite literally created our world, the turtle whose plated shell forms the building blocks of this earth, the grandmother who carries the world on her back.
For March, we’ve devoted this series thus far to the work of Taos Pueblo potters who specialize in micaceous pottery. In light of how this week has unfolded, it seems fitting today to feature the work of Wings’s late sister, Cynthia Bernal Pemberton: a traditional flask wrought in the mica clay, with an image of Grandmother Turtle summoned from its surface in stark relief.
Cynthia was a multi-talented artist. One of her specialties was exceptionally fine beadwork; Wings still has some of it in his private collection, work with which he has no intention of parting. But like so many Native artists, she branched out into other areas, as well, including pottery. This is the only piece of her clayware still in inventory.
It is a beautifully spare and simple piece, simultaneously substantial and yet very delicate. She crafted it in the canteen-style, with a plain open mouth, small extended tabs for the insertion of a strap, and an articulated surface with a flattened top, a bit like a small round mesa. From its description in the Other Artists: Pottery gallery here on the site:
This classic water flask was hand-made many years ago by Wings’s sister, Cynthia Bernal Pemberton (Taos Pueblo). Made of Taos Pueblo’s iconic micaceous clay, the flask is pristine but for the turtle carved in relief on the front. It hangs from a white deerhide thong. Stands 7.5″ high by 6.5″ across at widest point (dimensions approximate).
Micaceous clay
$325 + shipping, handling, and insurance
Requires special handling; extra shipping charges apply
It’s fitting that the surface should remind me of a mesa: After all, it is the Spanish word for table, one that has named a variety of geographic markers in this part of the world, tables made of and arising from the earth itself. Tables are set to feed the people, and here, the mesas feed us in a different way, providing sustenance for the spirits and for our spirits, as well. To summon such imagery from the micaceous clay that constitutes the sacred earth of this place, inspirited with its very light, and to midwife the emergence from it of Grandmother Turtle, that hybrid spirit of the earth and the waters who holds us on her back?
In a place where water is life, where earth is sacred, and where the light is its own spirit, Cynthia’s flask brings together the very building blocks of existence in one beautifully inspired and inspirited form . . . all in a shape that, in three fully realized dimensions, echoes the sacred hoop.
~ Aji
All content, including photos and text, are copyright Wings and Aji, 2016; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owners.
