Mark Tahbo was renowned for his creative pottery shapes, designs, and firings.  He learned to make pottery from his great-grandmother, Grace Chapella.  Each piece reflects the symmetry and thin walls of an excellent potter. The designs are painted using native clay slips and bee-weed (a plant) for the black.  This jar is coil-built and has very thin walls.  It was fully polished and then painted. The shape is elegant, with a wide shoulder and a gentle slope to the rim.  The jar is painted with two Awatovi birds (probably parrots).  Mark would take imagery from both ancient Awatovi and Sikyatki pottery.  Separating the two large birds are dragonflies and detailed bird tails.  Note the black-colored bird wings and the red tail feathers.  Interestingly, if you reach inside the jar, you can feel how Mark polished all the way on the inside to the shoulder. I remember he would talk about that as a surprise in his work that you couldn’t see it but could feel the polish inside.  The jar is signed on the bottom in the clay, “Mark Tahbo”.  It was made in 1995.  It is in excellent condition with no chips, cracks, restoration or repair.