This is a classic jar by Mark Tahbo.  He was known not just for his painted pottery but especially for the blushes on his pottery from the firing.  This jar is from 1994.  The piece is coil-built and painted with bee-weed (black) and two different red clay slips.  The jar has a wide shoulder and a short neck with an out-turned rim.  The top of the jar is painted with two large old-style dragonflies.  Each dragonfly has large, wide wings.  There are smaller dragonflies separating the larger ones.  It is a creative design that perfectly uses the space and shape of the jar!  The piece was traditionally fired to create the blushes on the surface.  It is signed on the bottom, “M. Tahbo”.   It is in excellent condition with no chips, cracks, restoration, or repair. 

For traditional Hopi-Tewa pottery, there are no shortcuts. I feel that the younger people, they aren’t as fortunate as I was. I was born at a time where I was with the elder women who revived Hopi-Tewa pottery and brought it to this level. I learned the old style. From how to get the clay, how to process it, from start to finish. They were simple, maybe even crude ways, but they worked. Today, it seems like the storytelling is almost gone. I always tell younger potters that it’s one of the most important foundations we can have as Hopi-Tewa potters. A story. Something to lean back on. If you don’t have that root or that foundation, you have nothing. You are just floating on your own. Soak it all in and listen to all the old stories that you can. There are just no shortcuts. You have to learn the hard way and have patience.”  Mark Tahbo, Spoken Through Clay