This is a later wide jar by Mark Tahbo.  He was known not just for his painted pottery, but especially for the blushes on his pottery from the firing.  This jar is from 2017.  The piece is coil-built and painted with bee-weed (black) and white and red clay slips.  It is an elegant shape with a wide, round shoulder and short neck.  The entire surface is fully stone polished. The jar has two large Hopi-style birds painted on the side. The birds are highlighted with two different red clay slips and white clay details.   Each of the Hopi birds is surrounded by Sikyatki-style flowing birds.  The birds have details in their bodies and tails.  Separating the birds are two double butterfly designs.  There is a lot of detail and imagery on this jar!  The piece was traditionally fired to create the blushes on the surface.  It is signed on the bottom with his pipe hallmark for Tobacco Clan.  Mark had decided in his later work that he would sign his pieces with his hallmark, emulating the earlier work of Hopi-Tewa potters such as Helen Naha, Joy Navasie, or Lena Charlie.  The jar is in excellent condition with no chips, cracks, restoration, or repair.  It is an exciting and visually dynamic piece of his pottery, especially at this size!

For traditional Hopi-Tewa pottery, there are no shortcuts. I feel that the younger people, they aren’t as fortunate as I was. I was born at a time where I was with the elder women who revived Hopi-Tewa pottery and brought it to this level. I learned the old style. From how to get the clay, how to process it, from start to finish. They were simple, maybe even crude ways, but they worked. Today, it seems like the storytelling is almost gone. I always tell younger potters that it’s one of the most important foundations we can have as Hopi-Tewa potters. A story. Something to lean back on. If you don’t have that root or that foundation, you have nothing. You are just floating on your own. Soak it all in and listen to all the old stories that you can. There are just no shortcuts. You have to learn the hard way and have patience.”  Mark Tahbo, Spoken Through Clay