This is a striking jar by Jared Tso.  He is one of the rising stars of Native pottery.  He is a grandson of potter Faye Tso, and his pottery is exceptionally refined in technique and traditional in style.  Each piece is coil-built from traditional native Navajo clay and traditionally fired.  This tall jar has a symmetrical form with a turned out rim. The jar is polished in a swirl manner from the neck to the base.  The neck has raised protrusions, and the rim has eight spikes.  Much of this style in Jared’s pottery is inspired by plant life.  The spikes and raised areas of a cactus become part of his artistic vocabulary.  The jar was fired black, with striking streaks of brown.   The brown areas at the bottom create a sense of nighttime descending over the mountains in the Southwest.  As the jar it turned, it becomes darker and darker until one side is fully black!  It’s the “luck” of the firing to create such amazing visual impact and story on a piece.  It is exceptional in person.  It is exciting to see an artist find inspiration in the historic work and, using the same clays, refine them in a modernistic manner.  The jar is signed, “Jared Tso”.