Vessel with Feather Design and Turquoise Inlays
by Barbara Gonzales
San Ildefonso Pueblo, NM
blackware clay, Kingman turquoise stones, turquoise heishi
7" high x 11.5" diameter
$2800
Note: This is one of the largest and most intricate vessels Barbara Gonzales has ever created. This was a featured piece at Quintana Galleries annual Indian Market Exhibition in the 1990's. Notice the small spider design etched into the middle edge of the pot.
San Ildefonso Pueblo artist Barbara Gonzales is from a famous family of potters. Drawing on the traditions of her family, she expanded this tradition by personalizing her pottery she describes as slipped-designed polychrome with inlaid coral and turquoise on etched black and sienna wares, often inlaid on spider designs which she created in 1973.
Barbara Gonzales (b. 1947) Tahn Moo Whe is an excellent potter and an extension of her famous great-grandmother, Maria Martinez, and her grandparents, Adam and Santana Martinez.
"Barbara calls herself a clay artist rather than simply a potter. She has said, ‘As an artist, if you let yourself go, you will find yourself doing different things' and, ‘Whenever an Indian gets involved with art, they do it with their whole being-that's what makes the art unique.' She has created some unique forms and styles, such as the spider and spiderwebbing technique in sgraffito that has become her trademark. She says the use of the spider on her pots symbolizes good luck.”
Reference: The Legacy of Maria Poveka Martinez by Richard Spivey
