Alternate Views 
“4 Direction Pottery”
by Sheldon Nunez-Velarde, Jicarilla Apache
Description: Micaceous pottery vessel with lid, traditionally fired.
About this Award: Awarded to work that shows the best quality in craftsmanship and use of ceramic material. All pottery is eligible.
Jurors’ Comments:
Susan Folwell: I chose the micaceous bean pot. It’s a beautiful form. It’s very technically well done. It’s a lovely firing to add a really nice dimension to the micaceous look. And I like the lid; it just adds something to the pot. It just gives it more. It’s just a beautiful, charming piece.
Martin Kim: I was completely seduced by the form, the deep undercut and the radical shoulder-handling. It’s a difficult feat in coil pottery regardless, but in micaceous clay, even more so. I think that in micaceous clay, form is everything—since it’s not contingent on painterly effects or handling of the brush or themes. So it has to be a virtually flawless form and the balance of the lid to the form I thought was excellent.
Mark Bahti: (About the Runner-up, his choice, Large Polychrome Jar, a San Ildefonso Pueblo jar with feather and plant design) I chose it for a couple of reasons. One is that the size is ambitious. It’s not easy to construct something like that without getting drying cracks. It’s a revival of sorts of an earlier polychrome style. The patterning on it: the corn, the checkerboard—whatever you want to call it—is unusual. So it’s a nice form, it’s an ambitious size, and it’s an older revival without being slavish about it. It’s got some innovation and a little freshness to it.
Photo by Emily Kleinkauf