What is the secret to Mata Ortiz pottery?
Oralia Lopez knows.
Lopez, who lives in Phoenix, grew up in the village of Mata Ortiz, Mexico. She is a great-niece of legendary Mata Ortiz potter Juan Quezada. Lopez is considered fourth generation in the tradition of handing down the artform.
Lopez said one of the secrets to the pottery lies in the coil technique. The potters don’t throw on a wheel. Instead, they build a base, then bring up the clay with their fingers.
Another secret to the artform comes from the clay itself, which is easier to paint on and is not too heavy.
Lopez said Mata Ortiz pottery is unique because the potters fire only once, at the end of the process.
The clay and the pigment the Mata Ortiz potters use is special. It comes from the area of Mata Ortiz, Mexico, a village of a few thousand less than 100 miles south of the U.S.-Mexico border.
Charmayne Samuelson, a local author who has written about Mata Ortiz pottery, said the artform is extraordinary because it is “infused with an almost mystical, surreal ephemeral essence.”
“Each piece is unique,” Samuelson said.
Lopez pointed out the intricate lines, the geometric designs, as another aspect of what makes Mata Ortiz pottery so distinctive.
Where does Mata Ortiz pottery come from?
They say it takes a village to raise a child.
It also takes a village, the village of Mata Ortiz, Mexico, to create an art form out of the local clay.
The modern story starts with Juan Quezada who, as a young man, began making clay pots. His inspiration came from finding two intact, prehistoric pots in a nearby cave.
Another man, Spencer MacCallum, a Princeton-trained anthropologist, found three of Quezada’s pots in a junk shop in Deming. That was 1976. Fast forward to about 20 years ago when Samuelson met MacCallum. She found the man so interesting, she penned a biography about him.
Samuelson said MacCallum managed to trace the pots back to Quezada in Mata Ortiz in 1976.
MacCallum offered to fund Quezada to focus full-time on his artistry. After Quezada became a master potter, he, in turn, trained the next generation of Mata Ortiz potters and so a tradition of handing down the training was sprung.
Samuelson said each Mata Ortiz potter develops their own style.
Lopez said some Mata Ortiz potters work traditionally while “others try new forms, try different styles.”
Lopez said that like Quezada before her, she is inspired by the Pachime. The Pachime were a people who lived in the area of Mata Ortiz from about 700 to 1200. A ruin, called Casas Grandes (Spanish for large houses) is nearby.
It was the Pachime’s pottery that first inspired Quezada. He began selling his pots to traders, which is how his work wound up in a Deming junk store.
And with that little bit of luck, Quezada started a recognizable artform.
