This is a striking polychrome plate by Russell Sanchez.   He continues to be one of the true innovators and revivalists in Pueblo pottery.  Each piece is perfectly coil-built, stone polished, and etched.  This plate is fully polished white on the front with a black micaceous rim.  There is a band of checkerboard with alternating red and tan.  The center has a bear with hematite insets.  Surrounding the bear is a classic avanyu.  The back ridge of the avanyu has a red clay line.  There is turquoise for the eye.  Note the little bear paw with a single inset piece of hematite!  In total, there are  72 inset stones in the plate.  Surrounding the plate are 2 bands of hematite hei-shi beads.  The polychrome pottery is inspired by the San Ildefonso polychrome pottery from around 1900 and derived from natural clays (black/red/white), using many of the same clays!  The colorations of black, red, and white are all seen in San Ildefonso pottery from the 1880s to about 1920.  His deep red clay is another recent addition to his clay art, which started around 2005.  As Russell continues to innovate from historic designs, he says, “Tradition means moving forward and adding to it. You keep moving forward.  If we stayed stagnant, we would no longer exist.”  The bowl is signed on the bottom in the clay, “Russell”.  It is exciting to see how this imagery is not new, but Russell’s reinterpretation of it both modernizes and revives.