“Santa Fe Rail”
by Susan Folwell, Santa Clara
Alternate Views
Susan Folwell
Description: Large kiln-fired pottery canteen with sheet metal back. Chief’s head and lettering on front, after the style of vintage Santa Fe Railroad advertising.
About this Award: Awarded for high quality in craftsmanship and vision in the use of clay. All pottery and figurative clay objects are eligible.
Juror’s Comments:
Bruce Bernstein: I selected this canteen because it’s a wonderful combination of an old idea and a new idea, and the culture-bound use of clay to create a continuity between outside and inside cultures. She’s put a metal back on the piece and glued it to the clay; it’s very complicated to glue two very different surfaces. She’s used a mica-flecked clay throughout. It’s polished, and uses Santa Clara paint all the way through it. It’s a big idea and balanced really well. It’s a play on the ideas of Native canteens and prospector canteens. Canteens have been in the Southwest for thousands of years, and then Anglos show up and they have new types of canteens, so it’s appropriating Anglo canteens into Pueblo life.