Olla (jar)

Lonnie Vigil is from Nambé Pueblo, about 15 miles north of Santa Fe. In 2011, Vigil said of his artistic process: “It’s a collaboration between myself and the clay. It’s not as if I start out with an intent to create a particular shape, form, or piece…[and] the clay also brings out her own desires and wishes and the two of us together make whatever the shape turns out to be. We refer to the clay [as] “mother” which is the spirit of the clay because all things are living, including the clay...I feel I was chosen by her through the spirit of my great-grandmother to do this work.”

-Aaron Miller, Associate Curator of Visual and Material Culture, Mount Holyoke College Art Museum (Sept. 2016)