Clay: A Seduction
It started out innocently enough with a trip to the Museo in Oaxaca City to view Pre-Columbian ceramics. I stood in a room surrounded by hundreds of ‘figuras’ — ceramic women, men musicians, athletes and dogs. I saw and felt the power of these ancient baked clay figures. And even more, I felt the seductive presence of the ancient artisans who had made these potent pieces. I may have fallen into a trance. The whole experience —the clay figures and their makers—beckoned me from a distant past. “Come, work with clay and fire. Sink your hands into the mud of the earth and give it form!” So I made a few figures and some simple bowls. And then I found I could not stop.
One afternoon as I sat forming a clay figure with Master ceramic artist Rufina Ruiz-Lopez at her studio outside Oaxaca City, she said “Somos el barro.” We are the mud, the clay. She spoke about the heart and soul of clay and encouraged us to see that, in many ways, we living humans are the clay as well—clay that is animated for a short time. She went on to say that “we think we are making things out of clay,” but at the same time, “the clay is really transforming us as we work.”