Taos Bean Pot
by Pam Lujan-Hauer, Taos Pueblo
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Description: Traditional Taos-style cooking pot made from micaceous clay from Taos. This is the only clay that fires this particular color of yellow-orange. The pot is coil-built, burnished and pit fired with cedar.
About this Award: Awarded to work that shows the best quality in craftsmanship and use of ceramic material. All pottery is eligible.
Jurors’ Comments:
Barbara Ornelas: I’m not familiar with pottery and techniques but I really like the clean lines, the shape and color…and the effect of the mica.
Alex Beeshligaii: For me it caught my eye when I first came in here earlier. The simple shape of it—the roundedness, the two little handles—knowing it a seed pot. When I was growing up my aunt had pots with seeds in the shed, you knew which one had which seeds....I am always drawn to this shape, to its utilitarian use.
Ryan Huna Smith: (about the runner-up) I voted for ‘Fishing Hole’ by Susan Folwell. I liked the shape of the piece and how it’s not symmetrical…the incorporation of the representational forms and these nice abstract elements and how the fish and the holes incorporate well into that asymmetrical form. I like the feeling, the flowing movement of the piece.