This is a very colorful 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 2006.  The piece is coil-built and painted with bee-weed (black) and five different colors of clay slips.  The jar has a round shoulder and a turned-out rim.  The rim of the jar has painted rain designs.  The neck of the jar has a series of his stylized birds.  On the shoulder of the jar, there are two large Bird figures.  They are stylized with human heads and bird wings and bodies.  Separating them are colorful bird tails.  Each side is different!  It is one of the more colorful pieces of his work I have seen.  In the early 2000s, Mark began experimenting with various clays that he would find around Hopi.  The piece was traditionally fired to create the blushes on the surface.  It is signed on the bottom “M. Tahbo,” along with his pipe hallmark for Tobacco Clan.  The jar is in excellent condition with no chips, cracks, restoration, or repair. 

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