Juan de la Cruz (Santa Clara) paints watercolors on 4-by-8-inch cards with a written description to explain the stories on his pottery and to revisit the theme in a different medium. Encouraged by Charles King of King Galleries, he is expanding his storytelling in larger watercolors painted on board. “With the expansion into creating standalone paintings on board,” he explains, “I would like to explore some of the mythological themes that inspire so much of my work in pottery.”
Corn Maidens and Duck, plate, native clay, native clay slips
De la Cruz draws from the stories in kiva wall murals as well as from Renaissance interpretations of Greek and Roman myth and the fluidity of design on ancient Greek amphora. Inspired by the pottery of his mother, Lois Guttierez, he also collects his own clays and prepares them for making the pots and the clay slips he uses to paint his polychrome designs.
Basket Dance, Native clay, native clay slips
His latest work will be shown at King Galleries in Santa Fe, New Mexico, in the exhibition Gia Kwijo’ Pehtsijeh’ Grandmother’s Stories, May 8 through June 11. De la Cruz has also designed the installation.
Fox Looking at the Sun Breaking Through the clouds, watercolor
“I would like for this show to feel as though a person is listening to some of the old stories that would be told by Grandmother (Gia Kwijo’) and seeing the images played out on the surface of the clay,” he explains. “Much like the storytelling medium of the ancient kiva murals that inspire many of the thematic elements of my work, I hope to imbue with these clay paintings on traditional pottery their own mythological quality to them. So, rather than sequential storytelling unfolding upon the surface of a clay wall, the story will wrap and bend around several clay vessels.”
Winter Clouds, native clay, native clay slips
His realistic figures merge with traditional geometric patterns as in his clay plate, Corn Maidens and Duck. A two-dimensional architectural plan of a kiva merges into the three-dimensional shape of a basket on his vessel, Basket Dance.
His watercolors, such as Fox Looking at the Sun Breaking through the Clouds, are signed with a glyph representing his Tewa name, Okhuwa Tsai (“White Cloud”).
King Galleries
May 28-June 11, 2022
130 Lincoln Avenue, Suite D, Santa Fe, NM 87501
(480) 440-3912, www.kinggalleries.com
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