This seedpot by Joseph Lonewolf is from 1981 and it is highly polished and fired red.  The design has a Mimbres ant and Mimbres lizard.  They are etched into the clay and highlighted with white clay slips.  Around them is a more deeply etched band that is slipped with a tan-colored clay.  Take a close look at the lizard and note the red bands with the etched scales.  On the back of the piece is the “yearly symbol” for 1981, which is a feather.  The piece is very highly polished and intricately designed.  It is signed on the bottom in the clay, “Joseph Lonewolf”.  It is in excellent condition with no chips, cracks, restoration or repair.  Joseph Lonewolf said of his use of Mimbres imagery in his pottery:

“I regard the Mimbres as my ancestors. Though I refine their designs, each design must have meaning for me. In my dreams I see how to use the design, how to make the pot happen. Then when I work the clay, everything flows. Some people wonder why I keep changing styles, colors, forms. But I can’t just sit there and make pots. Like any artist, I must try different things, different techniques. I must meet the challenge with my hands. The patterns and the methods I see in my mind during my dreams.” —Joseph Lonewolf, 1974, Spoken Through Clay

Deciphered: The Yearly Symbols of Joseph Lonewolf