This tri-color jar is part of a series Nathan Youngblood has made reflecting on the four seasons.  This jar is entitled, “Winter”.  The jar has a low shoulder and a turned-out rim.  The designs are deeply carved into the clay.  There is a slanted design that encircles the jar where he has carved a snowflake along with cloud designs.  Above this slanted band is a section with snow clouds and falling snow.  The opposite side has a tan polished area with carved clouds and the mesas.  Following from the tan area near the base, the jar tells the story of the dry areas in Fall that become nourished by the winter storms and snowfall.  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 piece is highly polished red and tan.  The areas separating each of the sections is left matte, creating the “tri-color” for which he is famous. 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 (see last photos)  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.