This is an elegant and detailed jar by Grace Medicine Flower.  It is from 1987 and it is fully polished and designed.  The jar has a round body and an elongated neck.  The front medallion has hummingbirds and butterflies. Take a moment to look closer at the band with the butterflies.  That section is polished red and then she scrapped away the polished red areas AROUND the butterflies to make it matte.  This is one of the few times she used this technique on such a large piece as itis time consuming and difficult.  That same band swirls up and around the neck of the jar. Around the back of the neck, there are more butterflies and as the section enlarges to meet the medallion there are more hummingbirds and flowers.  The remainder of the jar is fully polished.  In many ways, this may seems to be a simple piece, but Grace’s use of the polished space and the matte red and buff areas to enhance her designs is creative and visually striking.  Grace was never one to shy away from complicated pieces!  The jar is signed on the bottom in the clay, “Grace Medicine Flower”.  It is in excellent condition with no chips, cracks restoration, or repair.  Definitely a piece of history in clay!

Grace said of her pottery:

Once you start designing it something just comes to you. You don’t put her aside. She tells you while your mind is still fresh to keep going. Even at night I’d have this dream about forming this piece of pottery. I would have dreams about it, think about it and then say, “This is the next one I’m going to do.” I would picture it. Once in a while I would draw it on a piece of paper while it was fresh in my mind. Grace Medicine Flower, Spoken Through Clay