This is a complex carved and polished lidded bowl by Christopher Youngblood.  The piece is coil-built and has a sharp shoulder and sloping sides. The piece is entitled, “Awaiting the Rain”. The bowl has an avanyu or water serpent, encircling the piece. The avanyu is an important design in Santa Clara pottery.  “It represents life. It represents the water, which is important to life, to people, plants, and animals. The water design is very important to put on pots to honor that serpent. (Toni Roller, Spoken Through Clay).  Here, Chris has carved the avanyu with water swirls, lightning, and rain designs making up the shape of the body.  It is very complex and intricate carving. The avanyu was then stone polished. The remainder of the bowl is matte. The bowl has a lid and on one side is a carved thundercloud and rain.  On the opposite are rainbow bands and the head of another avanyu. The body of the avanyu extends downward along the top of the lid!  WOW!  What really makes this piece even more special is that Chris slipped the interior with mica so when you take off the lid, it almost looks a sparkle of light on water. All the carved areas are stone polished and the bowl was traditionally fired black. It is signed on the bottom in the clay, “Chris Youngblood”.   Chris has won “Best of Pottery” at Gallup Ceremonials (2021) and Santa Fe Indian Market (2021).

Chris has said of his pottery:

“I’ve had generations of people before me who have had to learn the hard way. I’ve had that information given to me without having to go through all the struggles. But, I would say on the flip side, having someone so technically advanced as your teacher (Nancy Youngblood), let alone your mother, it’s hard. The expectations are a lot higher.  I’ve learned that now, I never think it’s done. I keep going until I cannot find anything I can refine or add to the piece. To achieve an ever-higher level of precision takes a lifetime. ’s not something you learn, it’s something you live.”  Christopher Youngblood, Spoken Through Clay