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At San Ildefonso we don’t title pots because we don’t want the pots to get jealous of each other. We treat the pots as if they were a person. To us the pots are a living being, taken from the earth, so we treat them the same way we treat a human.
The piece itself would be called “Storage Jar.” That’s what it would have been used for in the old days. I started from the checkerboard design which means the connection from our Earth to the Spirit world up above. Then you put in the little dots (turquoise) which represent corn and that brings out the meaning of the storage jar. There are over 900 pieces of turquoise inlaid on the jar. The bear is the protector of the people. He’s sitting on top in his big pose, looking down over the pot and the people because that is what will sustain them. It may be a contemporary piece, but everything is based on traditional ideas and beliefs. —Russell Sanchez
Storage Jar (with Bear Lid)
Date2023
DimensionsOverall: 13 7/8 × 13 7/8 in. (35.2 × 35.2 cm)
Object numberN0010.2023
Credit LineCollection of the Fenimore Art Museum. Gift of the Eugene V. and Clare E. Thaw Charitable Trust.
Photograph by Richard Walker.
Label TextDeep down, I'm still very much a traditionalist, very old school. I'm using exactly the same traditional materials—clay and volcanic ash—and techniques from the 1600s and beyond, but there’s this saying at home: “Take this and make it, use it,” which means don’t be stuck in the past, don’t replicate pots, but be inspired by the pots. This is what I do to make it my own. To us that’s how you keep your tradition alive, so I like to think of myself as somebody that’s timeless not trendy. I’m into innovation, I’m into creating, I’m into a whole bunch of different ideas with pots but it’s all inspired from the work that was done before me.At San Ildefonso we don’t title pots because we don’t want the pots to get jealous of each other. We treat the pots as if they were a person. To us the pots are a living being, taken from the earth, so we treat them the same way we treat a human.
The piece itself would be called “Storage Jar.” That’s what it would have been used for in the old days. I started from the checkerboard design which means the connection from our Earth to the Spirit world up above. Then you put in the little dots (turquoise) which represent corn and that brings out the meaning of the storage jar. There are over 900 pieces of turquoise inlaid on the jar. The bear is the protector of the people. He’s sitting on top in his big pose, looking down over the pot and the people because that is what will sustain them. It may be a contemporary piece, but everything is based on traditional ideas and beliefs. —Russell Sanchez
On View
On viewRay Adakai
Nelson Morgan
