This is an intricate jar by Les Namingha.  His pottery designs are a creative blend of Hopi-Tewa and modernist designs.  The piece is a jar shape with a round shoulder and short neck.  The entire surface is fully painted. The rim is a series of lines that create the rainbow.  The white lines are the migrations of the birds.  This is how Les portrays a bird “migration” in his pottery.  It is his modernistic version of the Migration bird wing pattern revived by Nampeyo of Hano. The larger geometric shapes you see under the white line are how he represents the land formations as if you were looking down from the sky.  There is one larger section of geometrics near the base with the rainbow over them.  So, why so many lines?  Over the top of the lines are painted three Hopi-Tewa bird figures in brown and they are made up of additional Hopi-Tewa pottery designs.  What is interesting is that there are three different types of bird designs.  There is a swan, an eagle, and a bat ( the batwing design).  There is definitely a lot of migration to capture!  The jar has a fascinating variation of stylistic design as it is turned. Les creates designs that are often thoughtful and with meaning on various levels. This jar is part of his “Urban Polychrome” series, of which Les says:

“The concept of layering is inherent in our mortal journey. As time moves forward, our memories become layered. Some memories remain vibrant, others faint or hazy. Yet others, obscure or even hidden. Likewise, our experiences, words, works, emotions, prayers and songs build up in layers creating our existence. In turn, our societal interactions become exercises in layering. We see this in evidence with street art or graffiti writing where layers of thought and a desire to express a “proof of existence” create tapestries of color and marks. Blending, covering, harmonizing, dissonance, disappearing. This concept of layering is the idea behind Urban Polychrome and other works in the Urban Series.”  Les Namingha