This is a very detailed polychrome bear by Russell Sanchez.  He continues to be one of the true innovators in Pueblo pottery.  Each piece is perfectly coil-built, stone-polished, and etched.  This bear his primarily inset with coral, which represent the Summer Clan at San Ildefonso (turquoise is Winter Clan).   The bear is fully polished with white clay.  The sides of the legs are micaceous red.  The back is etched with large diamond cloud shapes and highlighted with red and black clay slips.  Did you know that all the etching and all the clay colors have to be carefully applied BEFORE the piece is fired?  This adds time to the polychrome pieces but also adds to their distinctive appearance.  The sides of the legs each are micaceous red and etched with a bear paw and inset coral stones.  Along the legs are inset hematite stones.  There are tiny inset coral stones that create a heartline extending from the mouth to the back.  In the center of the larger designs on the back of the bear are six large inset pieces of coral.  Across the back are two rows of coral hei-shi beads and two rows of hematite hei-shi beads.  The contrast of the large and small stones is striking in this piece!     There is a jewel-like quality to the way he inset the stones.  The bear is signed on the foot, “Russell ’24”.  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.”  It is exciting to see how this imagery is not new but Russell’s reinterpretation of it both modernizes and revives the clay.

“I’m a traditionalist all the way through.  Innovation is part of our tradition. You use the same materials and tools that you have, and the same design elements, and the Clay Mother will come through you for what she wants you to do,” he explains. “Instead of doing the same cloud pattern or serpent pattern, you take that and make it your own. So, in fact, everything I’m doing is old, but new.”  Russell Sanchez, Southwest Art Magazine