Christine McHorse is well known for her sculptural pottery.  Each piece is coil built and have very thin walls.  This bowl is a classic of her traditional style.  It is very thin walled and on the rim there is a raised band.  The neck has an incised rain motif and at the base is a stylized mountain design (the triangles). The jar was traditionally fired and then covered with pine pitch.  The firing created the various colors on the surface.   There is a simplicity to the jar and yet it is certainly striking among her traditional style.  Christine said of her Navajo pottery,

“I didn’t really have any idea about Navajo pottery. When I started making pottery, I also started researching it in books and museums. The Navajo pottery that was written about, they were called “mud pots.” It had not developed to the sophisticated level of Pueblo pottery. The term “mud pots” affected me to the point that I thought, I’m going to have to show them some Navajo pottery. My first time at Indian Market was in 1983. At first, I entered my work in the Taos style category of pottery.  Then I started incising burnished surfaces and applied piñon pitch. I did as much as I could with materials that a Navajo potter would use. So I started out doing the Taos style, then doing the Navajo style, eventually exploring other methods which led to contemporary forms.” Christine McHorse, Spoken Through Clay

Today she is creating more sculptural works with her pottery as in the recent “Dark Light” exhibit.  This jar is in excellent condition with no chips, cracks, restoration or repair.  It is signed on the bottom.