This is a small polychrome seed bowl 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.  The bottom half of the piece is polished red.  There is a mountain design etched into the clay with small inset pieces of turquoise.  Around the shoulder, the bowl is checkerboard matte and black.  The top is stone polished white with an avanyu as the design.  Take a closer look and there is a TINY bear paw just behind the horn of the avanyu. This is something you will often see with Russell’s avanyu design.  The eye of the avanyu and the back are inset with TINY turquoise stones.  It’s amazing that there are 50 on a piece this size.  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, “Russell”.  It is exciting to see how this imagery is not new but Russell’s reinterpretation of it both modernizes and revives.  Congrats to Russell who won the 2022 Santa Fe Indian Market Best of Show!