2010 IACA Artist of the Year

Mary Small

Jemez Pueblo Artist

		Mary Small, a celebrated potter from Jemez Pueblo, was named the IACA Artist of the Year for 2010 at the Indian Arts & Crafts Association annual Awards Banquet for the Spring Wholesale Market held in Albuquerque, New Mexico on April 22.   “I was born in Jemez Pueblo and grew up very much with the traditional ways and beliefs of my Mother and our Jemez People," says Mary.   Her award-winning vase, “Ancestral Migration,” combines a traditional pottery vase with a sculptural village depicting the pueblo adobe dwellings at Chaco Canyon. "I was thinking about our ancestors at Chaco Canyon when I made this pot,” said Mary.
"It is believed that our ancestors of Jemez lived west of Cortez, Colorado.  Later we migrated to the present day location, which was called Hemish, the Towa word, which means the People.    "My sculptures of villages along the trim of my pottery pieces depict those scenarios.  The migration designs below the Village represent the journeys and migration of Pueblo People from their ancestral home lands to the present day location.  In my pottery pieces I try to display those places and events of migration.   Mary learned to make pottery using the traditional coiling method from her mother, Perfectita Toya, another well-known potter. Mary’s innovative work has been credited with the revival of interest in traditional pottery among her Jemez Pueblo People. This is the second Artist of the Year win for Mary. She was also the Artist of the Year in 2002.   "My mother said ‘pottery is like a human body, it has a heart.’  She taught me to shape and form pottery from the inside up in a circular motion.  She said to pray and talk to the clay as the clay responds to the commands of my hands, which comes from my inner being.  I learned from my Mother that whatever I say or do comes from my inner being. Today my heart or inner being is very much focused on maintaining and protecting the traditional ways of our Jemez People.”
Mary maintains her traditional Pueblo religious beliefs, praying at every step of the pottery-making process -- from digging clay, to coiling the pot and painting the designs.   “You have to be at peace . . . that’s how pottery comes out to be beautiful,” she says. Mary's trademark blue-gray paint is used in the graceful polychrome migration design around the base of the pot. Mary and husband Simon dig the clays and gather the natural materials for the slips. She makes the special blue-gray paint by combining the black pigment of the rock mountain bee plant with her traditional clay slip. She continues to use the traditional yucca brushes and still fires her pots over cottonwood coals, using no mechanical aids to determine when the pot is finished. The sculptural forms of Mary’s pots have caught not only the attention of IACA, but also a number of museums, galleries and collectors.
"Each piece of my finished pottery is different and special to me," says Mary. "When I sell a piece of my pottery, I hug and embrace the person buying my pottery.  In that way I am giving and sharing the love and respect my Mother gave to me. I am deeply honored and grateful to God and the IACA association for their consideration and selection."