Youngblood, Christopher – Bowl with Dragonflies and Flower Swirls

3"w x 2.5"h

$ 2,400.00

Christopher Youngblood creates intricately carved vessels that reflect a perfect balance of matte and polished surfaces with intricately carved designs.  This bowl is deeply carved and highly polished making it a gem in clay!  The use of dragonflies on Chris’s pottery is perfection!  Here there are two dragonflies and the wings are deeply carved and rounded out.  Each has a different style of tail that curls up around underneath them.  Separating the dragonflies are cloud swirls and raindrops. The cloud swirls are striking as each has five to seven melon ribs that swirl out from the center.  The rounded surfaces of the carving and the highly stone polished surface perfectly reflect the light.  THe top of the bowl is matte which draws the eye downward to the designs.  The piece was traditionally fired a deep black.  It is signed on the bottom in the clay, “Chris Youngblood”.  I’m pleased that I have been working with Chris since 2010 when I wrote the first article on him for Native People’s magazine.  It is exciting to see how his work has progressed over the years and the awards for his pottery.  He was featured in the book, Spoken Through Clay, and continues to be one of the leading young potters working today.

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