No, we don’t have them yet. Flowers, that is.
We do have a winter storm warning in effect for a few hours yet on this first day of Spring — this, after temperatures surpassing seventy earlier this week, allowing me to muck out the horses’ stalls while wearing shorts.
In actuality, the snow is already here, if a few miles distant; the peaks are dusted again this morning after the storm that began Wednesday night. Down here at their feet, it’s been rain, and what a gloriously archetypal spring rain it’s been: soft, steady, and soaking, entirely peaceful despite the occasional flash of lightning and roll of thunder. Walking outside this morning, the skies are a solid dove-gray wall, but the world seems fresh and new, the air’s scent sweet and clean, large fragile raindrops dotting individual blades of grass. Meadowlark sings, and the world is green again.
The flowers will come, in due time, and probably sooner rather than later. The butterflies are already here; a tiny courting couple spiraled past me at play while I worked outside a few days ago. It’s time now to put out the hummingbird feeder; to collect seeds and ready them for planting; to till the earth.
And to wait for the flowers to appear.
The calendar’s reminder that it is the first day of Spring. combined with the unexpected blessing of this beautiful weather, made today’s choice for our Friday Feature an obvious one. In recognition of the fact that March is Women’s History Month, we’ve been using this day to highlight the work of some of the women artists from the Pueblo whose work we carry — in this case, potters, all. And of all those potters, the work of one, more than any other, is most clearly and obviously associated with the imagery of Spring: Camille Bernal.
We’ve introduced you to Camille and her work already. She’s Wings’s much-loved niece, who lives just down the road from us. She’s an incredible talent, a young and energetic and daring artisan with a distinctive style that is wholly her own.
And if I had to pick one artist whose work speaks to me of Spring, of new life and fresh air and rebirth and renewal, it would be Camille.
It’s hard for me to pick one favorite of all the pieces by her that we have in inventory. Each is unique, and each has its own particular gifts, its own message for the viewer. So rather than single out only one, I’m bringing you each in turn today, so that you can see the breadth and depth of her style and skill.
I deliberately chose to lead with the pot shown in the photo at the top of this post, though. It is, to me, a threshold piece: a representation of that moment when Winter metamorphoses into Spring. Winter is not, of course, gone, and will not fully depart for some time yet, nor is Spring fully present. And in this piece, I see the melding of the two seasons, as one prepares to take its leave for the year in the face of the other’s gradual arrival: the white snow, gentle, peaceful, yet already pierced by the stalks of new blossoms that look for all the world to me like the fuzzy catkins that are a first sign of the season in the lands that were my own home. Even the checkerboard pattern hints at the spirit of the seasons’ turn, conflict melding into cooperation in the natural order of things. From its description in the Other Artists: Pottery gallery here on the site:
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 catkin/flower theme reappears in a wholly distinct form in one of her smaller pieces, a miniature olla that is Wings’s personal favorite. It’s unusual in design, with a neck and lip sloping into a unique square shape that turns blends elemental motifs: an old-style water jar that evokes the shape of a kiva fireplace chimney or an outdoor chimenea, perhaps appropriate for a piece formed of the earth with the aid of water and then fired into permanence. And once again, it combines the feel of cold transmuting into warmth, of Winter become Spring. From its description:
This untitled miniature vase by Camille Bernal (Taos Pueblo) is one of Wings’s personal favorites: Fired from red area clay, its sturdy round base slopes gracefully upward, like a traditional kiva fireplace chimney, into a square opening onto the world. The exterior is a paler peach shade, accented with long-stemmed flowers tipped in gentle blues and grays and whites, stretching toward the sky. Stands 4″ high by 3.5″ across at widest point, with an opening at the square lip of 7/8″ (dimensions approximate). Top view shown at the link.
Tewa clay; plant-based paints
$180 + shipping, handling, and insurance
Requires special handling; extra shipping charges apply
Even the animal world appreciates the newfound warmth of sun and air these days, and they, too, make an appearance on Camille’s work. Of the pieces by her that we have in inventory, her largest, boldest, and perhaps most masterly work is her Mountain Lion bowl. It’s not a bowl that takes the usual form and shape; instead, it looks almost like a walled plate. And even the sides exhibit the unsettledness, the changeability, of a threshold season, ebbing and flowing like wind-tossed water. Mountain Lion himself, rendered in the oldest of vintage styles, stands on each side, always amid two fronds sprouting from the earth, fronds that look like the stands of red willow that give this place and its people their name. From its description:
Mountain Lion makes an appearance at each of the Four Directions on this old-style square bowl, flared and flowing open into something new and wholly alive. By Camille Bernal (Taos Pueblo), the bowl is hand-coiled red clay, with a pale yet warm slip. Mountain Lion is painted petroglyph-style on each side in soft Laguna Blue-Gray outlined in red, his tail extended up over his back. Bowl stands 4″ high by 8″ across at the widest point, with a flared opening of 9.5″ across at the lip (dimensions approximate). Another view shown at the link.
Tewa clay; plant-based paints
$375 + shipping, handling, and insurance
Requires special handling; extra shipping charges apply
Of course, it’s not only the warm-blooded animals, the kind with four legs and tails, who re-emerge into the light of the season. There’s a whole thriving universe of smaller creatures that most people never notice as they go about their days. But Camille notices them, and she incorporates them into her work. She once told me that, had she not been an artist, she would have become an entomologist, such is her love of the insect world. And with this miniature, she combines ancient scarab imagery (themselves guardians of the thresholds of the spirit world in a very, very old culture half a world away) with delicate brown shoots emerging from pale earth to blossom into delicate blue petals. From its description:
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 below.
Tewa clay; plant-based paints
$125 + shipping, handling, and insurance
Requires special handling; extra shipping charges apply
Similar blossoms make an appearance on one of her larger pieces, too — a classic Art Deco-style vase that harks back to a much older heyday of Taos Pueblo pottery styles, when the functional versions were used as ollas, or water jars, while the decorative ones were snapped up by the newly burgeoning tourist trade as objets d’art. From its description:
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 link.
Tewa clay; plant-based paints
$250 + shipping, handling, and insurance
Requires special handling; extra shipping charges apply
Of course, no such seasonal oeuvre would be complete without a piece that fully embodies Spring in all its riotous color and joy. Camille has made just such a piece, too —a miniature, yes, but that’s perhaps fitting on this first day of the new season, when its spirit has not yet fully taken hold. Still, it’s cause for celebration, and the flowers on this tiny bowl are in full bloom, joined in a swaying round dance of colors both gentle and bright. From its description:
Poppies in miniature are the theme of this little traditional-style bowl by Camille Bernal (Taos Pueblo). Hand-coiled of red clay, the bowl’s exterior is painted in a soft earth shade, with long-stemmed poppies dancing in petaled regalia of blues and reds, stretching sunward around the bowl. Stands 2.25″ high by 3.75″ across at the widest point, with an opening of 2-3/8″ at the lip (dimensions approximate). Other views shown at the link.
Tewa clay; plant-based paints
$135 + shipping, handling, and insurance
Requires special handling; extra shipping charges apply
All are beautiful representations of Pueblo pottery in a new and exciting form. All are also perfect manifestations of this threshold point of a new season, one of rebirth and renewal.
It’s fitting that they should be brought to the world by a young, up-and-coming artist of singular talent and style. It’s made all the better, for us, that she’s family.
~ 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.
