This is a spectacular piece from Al Qoyawayma.  It is one of his architectural pieces with a design which combines both Ancetral Pueblo and Mayan architectural styles. The form of the building is inspired by the Mayan Uxmal Governor’s Palace building with the wide elongated front. The square doors and the straight portico are part of this style.  Al says of this piece, ”

“Uxmal is a site in the Yucatan and was home to about 25,000. The original site was build by the Maya’s and later taken over by Uto-Aztecan speaking Toltecs, as were other locations such as Chichen Itza.  This site has numerous large buildings, pyramids (the largest is the “Pyramid of the Magician”) and the “Nunnery”, along with a large ball court.  The building I am emulating is the “Governor’s Palace” built with very finely cut stone…better than Chaco. It is rectangular….and about 300-400 feet long, 100-150 feet wide and 30-40 feet high. There are two large inset trapezoidal (corbel) arches on the long axis on each side of the building, along with 9 smaller doorways. The trapezoids are filled in with cut stone to form “tee-doors”. A geometric analemma (spiral) patterns (annual path of the sun) are inset in stone next to the doors (but not in my piece), and very impressive. A very long wide paved roadway (sacbe…”white roadway”) intersects the steps of the southeast face of the building, sort of like a royal entrance. This sacbe interconnects Uxmal with Kabah site which also has corbelled arches.  

I was inspired by the visiting the site.  The Pyramid of the Magician has Hopi migration symbols at the top.  Of course, the “Tee door” is emulated throughout the southwest. The Governor’s Palace has a very formal, stately, impressive architecture. Given our Hopi stories of interconnection with the south (Uto-Aztecan speaking Toltec, Mixtec, Zapotec, Aztec, with Hopi being a Northern dialect) and the stories of “red cities to the south with running water, etc, make this structure of natural interest to me. These implications and my visit there created the inspiration for this piece.”

Technically, the architectural scene is created in repousse, as it is pushed out from the clay to create the structures.  They are then refined and incised to create the intricate stone work and various levels.  It is both beautiful and complex as he carried the walls off to the side of the bowl.  Note the color variations on the buildings, which are created using various clay slips.  Al’s architectural pieces are among his most iconic works!