This jar is part of a series Nathan Youngblood has made reflecting on the four seasons.  This jar is entitled “Autumn Prayers”.  The jar is water jar shape with a round body and a short neck. The neck and base are fully polished tan.  The central area is deeply carved with two bands of design. The bottom band is an avanyu (water serpent) encircling the jar. The top band has four “half circles” representing the phases of the moon in each month.  Just as the avanyu continues its journey so does the moon, and the year.  The autumn is not just a time of harvest, but also a time of reflection and thoughtful prayer.  The jar is very tightly carved with small, complex designs.  As you may know, years ago Nathan designed a line of jewelry and this tight carving was inspired by the designs of his jewelry imagery. The carving is amazingly deep with sharp edges and the sections are polished a deep red. It was traditionally fired and on Nathan’s red pieces, after they are fired, he uses screwdrivers to scrape the background area and the side of the carving.  This can take almost as much time as the carving or polishing itself!  Amazing the amount of time that goes into each vessel and yet how stunning they appear!  It is signed on the bottom in the clay with his name and hallmarked name in Tewa, which means “Deer Path”.

Nathan says of his pottery:

“I’ve come to realize that each pot was a prayer. When you are designing, you convey your message using the symbols of a prayer. That’s why most of the pieces we make have some sort of water design on it. A prayer for water—rain, snow, some sort of moisture. Living in the Southwest, everyone is thinking about water. It’s a collective way of praying for moisture. Anything that will hold water, I put some sort of a water design on it.” Nathan Youngblood, Spoken Through Clay.