Sikyatki Clay Jar with Three Birds [SOLD]

Mark Tahbo often uses historic and prehistoric examples of Hopi pottery as his inspiration when creating designs on new vessels.  He, by doing this, keeps the continuity of Hopi ceramics alive and brings the older designs back to the attention of today’s collectors.

Mark Tahbo has set his agenda and purpose in life as one to continue the Hopi and Hopi-Tewa pottery traditions of long-ago potters.  He admires the work of the Sikyatki potters—their vessel shapes and beautiful designs.  He also admires the work of Nampeyo of Hano in her revitalization of those Sikyatki potters with her own interpretation of their designs.  Mark has now studied Nampeyo’s work and he is using her shapes and designs as inspiration for his work.

This jar was constructed of clay from the Sikyatki ruins and has a vessel shape inspired by the Sikyatki potters and three birds adapted from Nampeyo’s bird designs.  In Mark Tahbo’s pottery, one sees a continuation of tradition from a thousand years ago to the present.  Like Nampeyo, he does not copy his predecessor’s work but uses that as inspiration for his creations.

There is a wide framing line at the widest part of the vessel, as if that sets the stopping point for the design—do not go beyond this.  There is another one just below the neck, another boundary line.  Flying within these are three mythological birds of the same species, perhaps during migration.  Each bird is similar.  Most of the bird is dark brown in color with highlights of dark red, a color that Tahbo grinds from a stone.  His use of three birds, rather than the normal use of four, allows for each to be larger and more spectacular.

Condition: new

Provenance: this Sikyatki Clay Jar with Three Birds came directly from the artist, Mark Tahbo.

Recommended Reading:  America's Great Lost Expedition, The Thomas Keam Collection of Hopi Pottery from the Second Hemenway Expedition, 1890-1894 by Edwin Wade, et al.