This is a massive four-sided bowl by Daniel Begay.  The piece is coil-built, carved, stone-polished, and traditionally fired. This piece is entitled, “Protecting the Waters”.  It has four sections of interlocking designs. There are heartline deer, feathers, cloud, and mountain designs.  Each side is fully carved from top to bottom!  It is an extraordinary piece in size and design.  The bowl contrasts polished and matte areas to accentuate the designs and create Daniel’s own visual narrative. The style of carving has a beveled appearance to the angle of the cuts into the clay.  The bowl was traditionally fired brownish-black.  I included a photo of this piece next to one fired deep black for comparison in coloration.  The jar is signed on the bottom in the clay, “Daniel Begay”.  It is exciting to see Daniel challenge the boundaries of his creative clay art in size and complexity!

“Smoke Screen” is an original and creative idea by Daniel Begay.  It started as a personal challenge to create large vessels and focus on firing them red.  It is usually enough of a challenge to create a series of pieces over ten inches all.  But there is an added complexity to fire them red.  Red pieces are always more difficult to create in Santa Clara pottery as they are more difficult to polish, and the timing for firing is more exact to get just the right coloration and not overfire.  Over the six months he has been making these pieces, he began to evolve his firings as a means to create additional colorations.  The dark red, browns, and dark brown coloration are all created from the firing.  Together, there is a striking visual gradation of colors and an excitement from the size of the pieces.”