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 Vallarta Living | Art Talk | December 2005 
Potters' Town Booming in Northern Mexico
 Tim Gaynor - Reuters
Mata Ortiz, Mexico - For decades this dusty high-plains Mexican village of ranchers and railroad workers was rich only in burial sites and ruins left by the area's long-dead Paquime Indians.
But now almost every family in Mata Ortiz, a collection of 300 adobe houses and ranches several hours drive southeast of Tucson, Arizona, is making coil pots inspired by Paquime traders and artisans who once lived in a nearby city of two-story homes and open plazas. They disappeared in the 15th century.
Worked up from local clay deposits that range from creamy white to red, green and blue, the colorful pots form a canvas for abstract geometric designs, animal motifs and delicately engraved patterns.
Some are hawked fresh from firewood kilns by local artisans for a few pesos (about $3). Others are showcased in art galleries in the dusty main street where they sell for up to $4,000 to collectors from the United States, Europe and Asia.
The striking revival is because of one man, Juan Quezada, who set out to recreate the Paquime style after finding a stash of brightly decorated pots in a sealed burial cave while scouring the high sierra for firewood as a youngster in the 1950s.
"They were unforgettable. The designs and shapes so fascinated me that I knew I wanted to do something similar," said Quezada, now 65, as he stood in the patio of his adobe home.
"It was just a matter of finding the materials and researching the techniques, and I knew I would make something similar," he added.
Riddle Of The Sands
In the following decades, Quezada set about tracking down the Paquime's original materials and techniques.
Despite having no formal training, he hand shaped his first fragile egg-shaped pots using clay from the local sierra, firing them in an experimental backyard kiln fueled by poplar, pine wood and even cow dung.
Using natural mineral pigments ranging from yellows and reds, to a rich manganese-based black, he tried out brushes made from swatches of mountain lion fur and even maguey cactus fiber in a bid to recreate the clean lines of the originals.
"Eventually, I made a brush from human hair. As soon as I made the first line I said, 'That's it! That's what the ancestors used!'" he said, chuckling at his discovery.
Decorated with looping designs inspired by natural forms including squirrels' tails and rattlesnake fangs, his pots were an instant hit when offered for sale over the border in Deming, New Mexico in the 1970s.
Over the years, their smooth orb-like surfaces and bold lines have won praise from potters and artists worldwide, and have been compared to Art Nouveau and Cubist works.
Quezada's gift for ceramics won him Mexico's prestigious National Arts and Sciences Prize in 1999. The former railroad worker now gives gives workshops in colleges and art schools across the United States.
Desert Boomtown
Quezada shared his painstakingly acquired knowledge with his family and neighbors in the remote desert village, where the only major employer, the local railroad, closed in the 1980s, laying off scores of local workers.
Now whole families in the dusty, scrub-ringed community use the techniques and materials he revived to fashion eye-catching ceramics that range in size from thimbles to small trash cans.
The tasks are often divided between husband and wife teams, with one making and smoothing the pots, while the other paints and fires them. They are then sold to galleries or touted to visitors from the beds of pick-up trucks in the street.
The surprising array of techniques used to fashion the bright pots - some of which are decked out with desert animals like bears, eagles and ants, others etched with meandering lines, circles and triangles - often leaves visitors reeling.
"We saw one woman at work using a hacksaw blade, a CD disc and a syringe as tools," said Pat Campbell, a winemaker from Oregon visiting Mata Ortiz with her husband.
And for the villagers, some of whom have built new homes and bought new pick-up trucks following the success of their second career as artists, all credit goes to Quezada.
"We now live from making pots, and it's thanks to Juan," said potter Yolanda Ledezma as she painted ceramics in a studio next to her adobe home. "We feel real gratitude to him."
And Quezada seems pleased with the success his art has brought.
"When I started out I used to ask myself, 'When will I ever have enough money to buy donkeys of my own?'" he says with a smile creasing his lined face. "It has been incredible." |
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