of curing for a year – is then applied to the pot in the design desired to achieve the color black. Once ready, the object is then fired outdoors, using cedar and aspen wood, as it has been done for hundreds of years. Throughout this process, imperfections can arise or an object
may simply explode during firing – making the surviving pieces ever more precious when finished to perfection. Of course, the risk in producing such objects has been reduced to some extent through generations of practice.
In the Southwest, producing ceramics in the shape of humans and animals can be dated to 400 A.D., but with the arrival of the Spanish, these shaped objects took on the form of social commentary. And in the late 1800s and early 1900s, the shaped 'objects-as-social-
commentary' reached a new level with the creation of clay pieces called "monos."
The “monos” – meaning mocking, cute, or monkey – served as a coded commentary on the newly arrived New Mexicans, being tongue-in-cheek representations of how such people were seen by the pueblo people. Ironically the tourists – the very subjects of the monos – found the monos irresistible all the same and bought massive numbers of them as souvenirs. In a self-fulfilling commercial prophesy, interest in the monos expanded again with the 1879 arrival of the railroad as it delivered even more characters to the area who
in turn purchased more of the caricatures. Cochiti potters were soon producing both small and large clay portraits not only of priests, businessmen, and cowboys, but conjoined twins, dancing bears, circus performers, and opera singers.
As Anglos came to learn these pieces were pieces designed to mock their culture, officials placed restrictions on what the pueblo people could produce. Consequently, Cochiti potters started creating depictions of themselves and life within the pueblo: drummers, corn dancers, women, and children. Meeting the needs of smaller pieces that could be bought and transported on trains, these items also became very much in demand.
And it was out of the cultural tradition of not having a written language and demand for smaller depictions of pueblo life that the ceramic Storyteller figure was born. The Storyteller – a large central generally human figure with one to dozens of children clinging to them or an animal such as a frog, owl, or bear – is one of the most recognizable vessels made by Cochiti potters. They represent an elder
telling stories to curious listeners, or a messenger such as a frog or owl offering up a message more generally. These objects represent not just the oral tradition, but also send a message that Cochiti culture will continue through the stories told by the
children clinging to the Storyteller. Virgil’s grandmother and mother excelled at producing these works.
Enter Virgil Ortiz
Virgil Ortiz, whose name in Keres is Qu-Pii, which means badger, was born in 1969, the youngest of six children born to Seferina and Guadalupe Ortiz. Clearly a prodigy, he made his first figure at age six: a woman who he sculpted with breasts and a hat, which he then painted wearing a suit and bow tie (see next page). As Virgil has said, it could have been a man or woman3 – such was the signature twist that would become part and parcel of his work.
Opposite:
Virgil and family out gathering clay 2013, Cochiti Pueblo. Back Row: Harlan Reano, Virgil Ortiz, and Dominick Ortiz; front row: Dominique Reano, Lisa Holt, Kyle Ortiz, and Trinity Reano.
Photos Courtesy of:
Virgil Ortiz
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