This is a wide bowl by Steve Lucas.  The top and bottom are fully polished red. The center section is painted with stylized katsina masks and star patterns.  Steve said of this style of his pottery:

“I try to mix the abstract and the classic design elements on the top to show how the two could be connected. I was always interested looking at stars and finding inspiration there. Where I fire there are no street lights. I can sit at night and see everything and watch a lot of stars.  In my pottery the katsina masks are not an exact representation of them but simply have elements of them in there. I would go and watch the dances, and I liked the way the katsinas looked so I began to put them on the pottery.”  Steve Lucas, Spoken Through Clay

On this jar, it is possible to see a variety of different katsinas from a Chakwaina to Kokopelli to Ogres.  The designs are painted with bee-weed (black) and a red clay slip. The red clay is stone polished for shine and there is just a bit of mica in the clay.  The bottom of the jar is fully polished red.  The jar is traditionally fired which creates the blushes on the surface.  It is signed on the bottom with his name and an ear of corn (Corn Clan) and a Mudhead Katsina.