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by Kelvin Yazzie, Navajo (Diné)
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Kelvin Yazzie
Photo by Lana Tupponce
Description: Hand-built ceramic piece made from Laguna brand “Death Valley Red” commercial clay. Slab construction, bisque fired, then pit fired using sawdust, wood chips, leaves, pine cones and needles, and manure.
About this Award: Awarded for high quality in the innovative use of clay.
Jurors’ Comments:
Terry DeWald: I went with this piece because it’s definitely the most innovative piece on the table. not only the separate making of the hands and the two pieces together The piece that’s by itself is hollow too.
Polly Folwell: We’re looking for high quality and innovative use of clay, and that seemed to fit the bill, with two separate pieces and to look at it closer it is actually three separate pieces, where the hands might have been added underneath the second piece and for me that’s what made it innovative, and the understanding that it could be organs of some type.
Rachel Sahmie: Yes, wonderful... the two pieces, the imagination it took to create such a piece. The imagination, the shape, the grace.