My “Red Tail Hawk” series is a series of Native American style stoneware pots.
“Fat Foxes” is a member of this series, which won “The Achievement Award” at the From the Ground Up XXII Juried Exhibition of Ceramic Art in Las Cruces, New Mexico in 2004.
The dragonfly is the symbol of water. Steamboat Springs is blessed as the wettest part of Colorado. On a walk by a stream you might have a dragonfly keep you company for a while. The dragonfly frieze on the pot is not a continuous band. There is a spirit line that separates the design in one place on the pot. This spirit line allows the soul of the pot to leave the pot and return without breaking the pot.
The feathers are to represent the feathers of the red tail hawk. They are the raptor we hope to see riding the thermals when we hike need the timberline. If you catch the view just right, the sun shines through their tail feathers, a nice auburn color.
The amulet is a design I picked up from the Fremont Indian rock art. The Fremont lived in northwestern Colorado at the same time as the Anazasi lived in southern Colorado. The Fremont portrayed their figures with a breastplate of these shaped beads.
The names I give my pieces, taken in total, will describe where I live. “Fat Foxes” is a story of two very fluffy foxes in mid November that were working the bushes by my studio. It looked like they wanted mouse lunch.
Moving back to Colorado in the mid 1990’s brought me to a quiet place in the aspens above Steamboat Springs. It has allowed me to work on the :Colorado Challenge,” blending and distilling the indigenous Indian and 19th Century cowboy cultures. I attempt to break apart what is “The West,” examine it, and capture its essences in my work.