Tony mindling on sun 29 sep 02
Oaxacan Clay Workshop: Friday, Day 6
Outside of Oaxaca, the two best-known types of Oaxacan pottery are the black
pottery and the Aguilar sisters' ceramics. Somehow everyone seems to know
about the black pottery sort of like everyone knows the Eiffel Tower is in
France. Well, maybe not quite that much. And the Aguilar sisters with their
lovely or crazy or hysterical painted figures are a current favorite; among
the sisters they can list off a shelf full of books in which they appear.
So today we will go on the trail of fame. It happens to all be down the same
southward highway.
Our first stop will be San Bartolo Coyotepec, of black pottery fame. The
most famous potter in town, indeed the most famous potter in Oaxaca, is Dona
Rosa Nieto. The legend is that she started the black pottery, and her house
is such a tourist destination that the Nieto family
bought the adjacent lot so there would be enough room for the tour buses.
Sorry folks, we won't be going to the Nieto house. You'll have to sign up
for another type of trip if you want to hang with the bus crowd. Besides,
Dona Rosa died about twenty years ago. And she didn't invent black pottery
anyway, it has been around for thousands of years. But she did have the
cheerful personality that helped bring it to fame back in the 1940's.
We'll see how the pottery is made at another house where there is no bus
parking. You will look upon the process with your now very educated hand
building eyes and you will understand what is going on. You will also enjoy
seeing the differences between this process and that of San Marcos. We'll
see the sunken kilns and learn how the pottery is fired. But I can't show
you the clay mines; no outsiders are allowed to see them for it is believed
that there is uranium in the clay and that the gringos want to steal it to
make bombs. Not wholly unfeasible.
Then down the road to visit with wild spirited Irene Aguilar to find out why
she has, standing side by side on her work shelf, a clay figure of the
Virgen of Guadalupe and a hooker dressed as a nun. While she tells us maybe
she'll take some clay and whip up a woman in a wide dress carrying a large
fish on her head.
Irene and sisters live in Ocotlan. Ocotlan on Friday hosts a very active,
weekly market. We will go here and wander freely to gaze upon tomatoes,
watermelons, plaited baskets, boiled yams, dried minnows, sandals made of
tire innards, and straw hats made of plastic. We will let our eyes rest, for
a moment, from visions of pots, clay and hookers dressed as nuns.
For more info drop Eric a line rayeric@RNET.com.mx or take a peek at
www.manos-de-oaxaca.com.
Session 1: Feb 2-10, 2003
Session 2: March 16-24, 2003
Short Course: December 15-21, 2002
| |
|
