Lois Gutierrez Santa Clara Basket Dance Pottery
This is an authentically hand made, and hand painted pottery by Lois Gutierrez a premier potter from the Santa Clara pueblo. Lois and her husband Derek produce beautifully painted, exquisite polychrome pottery depicting animals, birds, deer hunters, and other figures.
Lois Gutierrez herself learned to make pottery from her mother, Petra Montoya Gutierrez, who had married into Santa Clara from Pojoaque. Her sister, Gloria (Goldenrod) Garcia is known for her small contemporary sgraffito pieces. But Lois makes large pieces, reinterpreting the polychrome design making. She sometimes draws Koshare clowns, butterflies, and Pueblo scenes. Her husband Derek helps her gather her clay. He was quoted in Talking With the Clay as saying, "If you look hard enough you can find clay here and there all over the mountains, but you got to look for it. It doesn't just jump out at you. It is beautiful when you dig in it. The white clay looks like candy, white chocolate. When you're digging in it, you don't want to stop, it feels so neat." Lois developed a very distinctive slip - by adding white to dark gold clay to make a buff colored background. Lois has said, "My favorite part is firing. When it fires good, you know that your time and hard work has been worth it." In 1982, Lois and Derek won Best of Show at the Santa Fe Indian Market.
The colors in their pots are produced from natural clays that they gather around the pueblo. The designs are thoughtfully laid out on sketch paper before implemented on their pottery. The two produce their pots individually, and then fire them jointly. A long article discussing their superb work and listing the many awards that Lois has won can be found on pages 39-40 of the authoritative book Pueblo Indian Pottery: 750 Artists Biographies, by Dr. Gregory Schaaf.
This is an absolutely gorgeous piece depicting yhe Basket Dance. Note the bottom of the pot: it is painted in the texture of a basket. The pot measures about 10 tall by 9.75 inches in diameter.
Item No.: A1334
Artist: Lois Gutierrez de La Cruz
Size: 10 in H x 9 3/4 in D
Price: 
