Mark Mitchell
Tesuque Pueblo
Curator Mark Mitchell, a fluent Tewa speaker, served as Governor of Tesuque Pueblo in 2005, 2009, 2011, 2013, 2017, and 2021. When not Governor, he serves as Tesuque’s Tribal Historic Preservation Officer.
Mark chose the following for the Grounded in Clay exhibit:
Lorencita Pino | Tesuque
Bean pot with lid
1963
Clay and mica
12½ x 13½ in. (31.8 x 34.3 cm)
IAF.2937
Collection School for Advanced Research
Created from the Earth
I was drawn to this pot the moment I set my eyes on it. I saw my grandmother Lorencita Pino make similar pieces, so I knew this was her work. It took me back to my childhood. My grandmother worked with this orange clay and often incorporated faces and animals into her designs. The handles on this vessel are foxes, but they have stripes on their tails like chipmunks; animals that live in our communities are a part of everyday life and prayer.
I have been around pottery for as long as I can remember. My grandmother did not have a vehicle to get to the place where we gathered clay, so we would hike there with a Radio Flyer wagon and pieces of cloth to carry our tools. We talked and walked, and returned with a wagon and fabric full of raw material. Gathering clay was a learning process for us kids.
My grandmother was a great multitasker. As we gathered clay, she would also gather plants and other materials used to polish or to make slips and paints. She would gather as much clay as she could carry, but she was very picky. If there were too many rocks or too much silt, she would not use it. It was a process that involved the whole family. After my grandmother built the pottery and let it dry for a few days, she would sit at the table with my mother and aunts, and they would talk as they sanded and burnished their pots together.
Nothing went to waste. As the women sanded their clay, the dust collected in their long aprons and would then be put into a bucket to be reused. If a vessel had cracks, my grandmother would give it to my uncles so they could save it. Those pieces were ground up to use as temper for another day. From the raw material to the end product, I saw it and I lived it.
Sometimes my grandmother would give us kids leftover material and tell us to make something. We would try to make little dogs, wolves, or other critters. She would show us how to sand our pieces, slip them, and help us come up with a design. When she was ready to fire her big pots, she would leave enough wood to fire our little pieces, and when they were finished firing she would say, “Those pieces are now done. Come see how they look.” She was teaching us to be potters.