This is a charming water jar by Robert Patricio.  This jar has a high shoulder and a short neck.  The jar is painted with bee-weed and different clay slips.  The design has four Acoma birds or parrots.  The birds are painted with either red or orange clay slips.  Each bird is painted under a double rainbow and there are plants next to each bird.  Separating the birds are corn plants, a symbol of prosperity.  Around the neck are additional rain clouds and rainbows over the corn plants.  For the size, it is a complex design!  The base is painted with red clay.  It is signed on the bottom, “R.  M.  Patricio”.  The jar is an exciting extension of his artistry in clay and continues the amazing Acoma legacy.   

Robert said recently of his pottery:

““The pottery inspires me to keep going.  Keeping the tradition alive in making pottery, that’s how we were brought up.  Our ancestors started making pottery.  It’s amazing what comes of a piece of clay. When you come to Acoma it’s peacuful and quite.  When you look a piece of pottery, you see the same peacefulness.”   Robert Patricio, 2020