Laguna Pueblo Large Polychrome Olla by Max Early [R]

Max Early was born into the Turkey Clan of his mother and Bear Clan of his father at Laguna Pueblo.  He grew up with his grandparents.  During his early teenage years, he painted some of his grandmother's pottery.  He refined his technique to a personal touch, while maintaining traditional Laguna design symbols and compositions.  A good example is his inclusion of the boxes with split rectangular elements in this jar—elements often seen on historic Laguna pottery.

When Early delivered the jar to us, he explained some of the design elements.  The black diamond enclosing another black diamond and then enclosing a black box represents Shibot, the eye of God or, as known in Spanish, Ojo de Dios.  The diamonds composed of a pair of orange rectangles split by white rectangles and outlined in brown represent planted fields.  The black diamonds with a white eye and black pupil represent a bird and the plants on the neck and shoulder are corn.

Since 1994, Early has continued to be honored as a top prize-winning artist at Santa Fe Indian Market.  At the same time, he has pursued his higher education degree at the University of New Mexico, leaving little time for making pottery.  In addition to being a potter, he is a poet and his first book of poetry is currently being published and will be released shortly.

Take note, in the four vessels we show below as related items, that each of them has a series of the split rectangles mentioned above.  These four vessels are historic.  Early is continuing the tradition but in a contemporary manner.

Condition:  new

Provenance: from the artist

Recommended Reading: Acoma and Laguna Pottery by Rick Dillingham