Borts-Medlock, Autumn – 11″ Tall “Taking Flight” Sculptural Polychrome Cloud Jar
$ 9,800.00
This is an exceptional sculptural jar by Autumn Borts-Medlock. She is known for her often fancifully carved pottery. This piece is entitled, “Taking Flight”. Over the past several years Autumn has been working to create sculptural pieces using native clay. While still a “vessel” and coil built, they have angles and shapes that speak to an organic form, like the movement of clouds. This is why she calls them “cloud jars”. This jar is rounded and moving in various directions and carved in at least four different levels! The jar seems to have motion, wrapping around itself. On one side is bird with flowers. The bird is carved on multiple levels and polished tan, blue, and red. Note how Autumn carved the bird’s legs on the branch! There is also a flower carved into the bird’s mouth. The flowere are polished green and red. They etend around the side of the jar. The opposite side has another bird in flight. It is polished blue and tan. Again, she has multiple levels of carving on the bird and the wings. The clouds swirl around them on the edges of the jar. It is amazing how much time Autumn takes in her carving and polishing to create such colorful pieces that tell a story. Each small carved sections, whether polished or matte, adds time and detail to her work. It is amazing how she is able to create pieces with dimensionality and flow of design. The jar is signed on the bottom in the clay, “Autumn Borts-Medlock”.
“These pieces were inspired by watching the clouds at Puye Cliffs (the ancestral home of the Santa Clara people) and at the Pueblo. I wanted to carve into the clay to create multiple layers on each piece. More importantly, I wanted to create a sense of movement. I did this through both colorations of the clouds and layers of carving. The cloud colorations combine several colors of clay and are meant to appear as if they are moving and you can see through them. The birds are captured in flight, amongst the clouds and the cliffs.”
In stock
This is an exceptional sculptural jar by Autumn Borts-Medlock. She is known for her often fancifully carved pottery. This piece is entitled, “Taking Flight”. Over the past several years Autumn has been working to create sculptural pieces using native clay. While still a “vessel” and coil built, they have angles and shapes that speak to an organic form, like the movement of clouds. This is why she calls them “cloud jars”. This jar is rounded and moving in various directions and carved in at least four different levels! The jar seems to have motion, wrapping around itself. On one side is bird with flowers. The bird is carved on multiple levels and polished tan, blue, and red. Note how Autumn carved the bird’s legs on the branch! There is also a flower carved into the bird’s mouth. The flowere are polished green and red. They etend around the side of the jar. The opposite side has another bird in flight. It is polished blue and tan. Again, she has multiple levels of carving on the bird and the wings. The clouds swirl around them on the edges of the jar. It is amazing how much time Autumn takes in her carving and polishing to create such colorful pieces that tell a story. Each small carved sections, whether polished or matte, adds time and detail to her work. It is amazing how she is able to create pieces with dimensionality and flow of design. The jar is signed on the bottom in the clay, “Autumn Borts-Medlock”.
“These pieces were inspired by watching the clouds at Puye Cliffs (the ancestral home of the Santa Clara people) and at the Pueblo. I wanted to carve into the clay to create multiple layers on each piece. More importantly, I wanted to create a sense of movement. I did this through both colorations of the clouds and layers of carving. The cloud colorations combine several colors of clay and are meant to appear as if they are moving and you can see through them. The birds are captured in flight, amongst the clouds and the cliffs.”
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Borts-Medlock, Autumn (b. 1967)
Autumn Borts-Medlock
Autumn Borts-Medlock is one of the great young innovative potters of Santa Clara Pueblo. Her renowned family includes Sister Tammy Garcia, Mother Linda Cain, Grandmother Mary Cain, and Great-Grandmother Christina Naranjo. Autumn has said of her work; Growing up in Santa Clara Pueblo, in a family whose connection to the clay goes back generations, pottery has always been a part of my life. I was introduced to the art form as a child, making my first formal attempts at clay work under the guidance of my mother and grandmother. Working exclusively in the ancient traditional Pueblo technique of coil-building, they shaped bowls, vases, and plates from clay they had gathered from the hillsides near the village and processed themselves. Nearby, I sculpted animal figurines and nativity scenes from the moist clay, always welcoming the gentle hands that occasionally reached down to direct or redirect my efforts. These lessons solidified my connection to the clay and gave me the skills to move into coil work. Within a few years, I worked alongside my mother and grandmother, making pottery from clay that I was now helping to gather and process. Drawing from the spiritual symbolism and nature-oriented design aesthetics of Tewa culture, we carved the shapes of kiva steps, bear paws, feathers, rain clouds, water serpents, and lightning bolts into the surface of the vessels. Next, we used smooth stones to polish them to a shiny, mirror-like finish. Then, we waited for a calm, wind-free morning to fire them outdoors in flames kindled by thin, fragrant sticks of red cedar. We watched the timing down to the second in hopes of keeping our long-labored creations from succumbing to this always-risky phase of the pottery-making process. Learning directly from these two extraordinary artists was a gift, and they remain among my strongest influences even now." Autumn has won numerous awards for her pottery at Santa Fe Indian Market, and her work is in the permanent collections of museums such as the Denver Art Museum and the Heard Museum. Her pottery continues to charm and intrigue with her distinctive and intricately designed imagery.
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