The Human Condition: The Stephen and Pamela Hootkin Collection Sept. 2014 | Page 28

the artist and discovered that Lucero still owned all the
figures save two that had found their way to museums.
The Hootkins were able to acquire the remaining fifteen
pieces from the series. They were given to the Chazen
Museum of Art for the 2013 exhibition, Michael Lucero
Installation. Viewers of this show were able to wander
among giants made accessible, even friendly, by the
decorative palette and patterning of the painting.
Upon Lucero’s return to the kiln, the shards series
ended and the palette grew even brighter, more
Michael Lucero, Soul Catcher, from the series New World, 1994.

brash and everyday. He was now painting Dali-esque
landscapes on giant insects, heads and hearts, some

rubber-suit, horror-film monster from the deep, except

single works, some multiples organized as totems, and

that this figure originates from the green grocer. Untitled

some installations, all surreal carriers of memory.

(The Lizard Slayer) (1980) and Untitled (Snow-Capped
Mountains) (1982) become more open and linear, the
mass is gone, negative space suddenly becomes the
dramatic focus of the work. The shift was demanded
when Lucero decided to increase scale. Ceramic is
heavy and it was difficult to make figures larger than
seven feet without them becoming too cumbersome and
weighty. They could only get bigger if they got lighter.

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Soul Catcher, from the series New World (1994), a metal
tree of upside-down pots, is more complex than it might
first seem. In some ways it is the master key to unlock
Lucero’s creative spirit. At first glance it has something of a
sideshow quality; imagine a booth where one throws balls
at pots to win oversized soft toys. But the work is actually
rooted in spiritualism. A soul catcher is a character type
in Japanese Manga comic book imagery, but its roots are

When Lucero moved to New York in 1978, these works

shamanistic. Lucero connects with this in two ways. The

grew even larger. He did not have access to a kiln when

soul catcher is an important object in the Northwestern

he first arrived, so he made seventeen shard figures

American Indian religion particularly around and north of

out of light fruit-crate wood, scavenged in Chinatown.

Seattle where Lucero went to school. Later he lived for a

The figures were only shown once in 1980 at the Wake

few years in Santa Fe, New Mexico, where the wearing of

Forest University Art Gallery in Winston-Salem, North

soul-catcher necklaces (also known as dream catchers) by

Carolina, and then forgotten. In 2012, intrigued by what

the Native population was common. In Indian culture the

had happened to these works, the Hootkins contacted

soul catcher was sent to the spirit world to recapture souls