Juan de la Cruz (Santa Clara) once showed a polychrome pot with painted figures to a potential customer who thought that one of the water jars was a purse. “I explained the water jar to her and decided ‘I’m just going to do descriptions.’ I paint cards in watercolor and include a description of the pot. The cards allow me to revisit the themes in a different medium,” he explains.
Morning Star, plate, Native clay, Native clay slips, Native fired
Santa Clara artist Juan de la Cruz stands with his artwork.
Cruz follows in the polychrome tradition of his Pueblo and the work of his mother, Lois Gutierrez. He is also the grandson of Petra Gutierrez, and his aunts are potters Gloria Garcia (Goldenrod), Minnie Vigil and Thelma Talachy.
In the traditional way, he gathers and prepares the clay, the sand temper and the colored clay slip he uses to paint his figures and designs. A young potter, he has won Best of Pottery at Gallup Ceremonials in 2017 and again in 2019.
“I follow our own family tradition,” he says.
Parrot Girl, storage jar, Native clay, Native clay slips, Native fired
Coyote and Stars, bowl, Native clay, Native clay slips, Native fired
“I take inspiration from my mother’s work, using it as a springboard. I incorporate figures and reinterpret traditional geometric designs. I draw a lot from traditional stories. I like the mythological, there’s so much to draw from. I’ve always had a fascination with Greek amphora. Their figures have movement and fluidity. I look at sources and then let my imagination take hold. I do sketches ahead of time, but they never fully survive. There are always changes from the flat paper to the curved pot.
“In Winter Solstice, I’m depicting a ceremony where seeds of the harvested corn are taken to the kiva as an offering for the next season. You can see I’ve incorporated the corn motif in the design at the bottom of her garment.
Winter Solstice, jar, Native clay, Native clay slips, Native fired
“Unlike buying the paper and the watercolors for the cards, I love the process of making pottery. I like being involved in every aspect of it—gathering and mixing the clay, building up the pots coil by coil—all the way to the end, firing it with wood I’ve collected. That’s the big thing about it for me—the involvement. I don’t see changing anything for the foreseeable future. I hope to continue improving. I just love it.”
Four Directions, storage jar, Native clay, Native clay slips, Native fired
Charles King of King Galleries in Santa Fe, says, “In addition to keeping Santa Clara polychrome pottery alive, he is also reaching into Santa Clara culture and stories and bringing them to life on his pottery. The ‘Blue Corn Maidens’ are among his favorite stories to tell.”
Blue Corn Maidens and Other Pueblo Stories opens at King Galleries December 5 and continues through December 19. —
King Galleries
December 5-19, 2019
130 Lincoln Avenue, Santa Fe, NM 87501,
(480) 440-3912, www.kinggalleries.com
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