At five o’clock this morning, a giant crescent moon hung low over Spoon Mountain, its amber arc just visible between the leaves of the aspen outside our bedroom window. Against a sky still more the color of midnight than of the incipient dawn, it flashed with shades of gold and copper, shimmering like the mica in the local indigenous clay.
It was that magic moment when the skies were still fully clear courtesy of the night winds, before the trickster breeze of the new day delivered the smoke that hangs heavy over the land now. Our world today is gray once more — not the rich iron and slate of the storm, but the wan yellowed smog of particulate matter that burns eyes and steals breath.
The sun is shining, but it feels very far away now.
It’s not, of course; it’s far too hot for that, if one needed any evidence beyond the earth’s continued existence. But it is an eerie light, to be sure, one filled that ignites a sense of foreboding in heart and soul, for we all know whence this gray glow comes. Our earth needs water now, desperately, and with winter already looming, we need to keep our faith fixed firmly on the sun behind the smoke.
Today’s featured work embodies all of these elemental forces and spirits: earth, air, fire, water; the smoke and steam of the kiln and the shimmer of the light. From its description in the Other Artists: Pottery gallery here on the site:
Olivia Martinez (Taos Pueblo) infuses this traditional micaceous wedding vase with motifs of unity and love. The vase is made in the old way, hand-coiled, lightly polished, and fired to a subtle sheen. The bowl is slightly sculpted, a barely-definable ridge accenting its widest point; each spout emerges gracefully from the bowl, one angled upward at either side, each with a flowing outer lip and an inner lip that extends upward into a braided handle, symbolizing spirits united and intertwined. The entire vase stands 9.5″ high; it measures 7-3/8″ across the spouts at the widest point; and the bowl is 5″ across at its widest point (dimensions approximate).
Micaceous clay
$575 + shipping, handling, and insurance
Size, weight, and fragility require special handling; extra shipping charges apply
I chose this work for today precisely because of its identity, but also its appearance here. It’s set against a sky-blue wall, that flawless shade of pale cornflower that we are denied in the tangible world this day. It’s the perfect color to set off the richness of the fired clay: earth at once gold and red, like this morning’s crescent moon, wedded together perfectly in a vase designed expressly to mark a marriage; veiled here and there with blue-black clouds from the firing process, as tough the smoke still adheres to the surface; and the shimmer of a million suns and stars shining through all of it. It’s a reminder that the smoke only obscures the light; it does not have the power to extinguish it.
I am forever and always a child of the storm, but I can appreciate brilliantly sunny days, too, especially when they hold the clear sharp edge of fall upon the wind. But there is little so disheartening as this pale yellow-gray sky, the light distorted and weakened by a pall of ash and deadly particulate matter. On a day like this, it’s good to be reminded of the sun behind the smoke, and the knowledge that it still keeps our world alive.
~ Aji
All content, including photos and text, are copyright Wings and Aji, 2021; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owner.
