Jason Garcia
Santa Clara

Sentinels

11" H x 8" W


Jason is the son of noted potters Gloria Garcia (Goldenrod) and John Garcia. His early ceramics work focused primarily on figures and capturing Pueblo dances and activities in clay.

“I learned by watching and learning from my parents and other family members, including my aunts and grandmothers.” His work on tile, creating “two dimensional images on a three dimensional surface, was inspired by the late Pablita Velarde’s mineral paintings on masonite.”

As he was also interested in photography and drawing, the figures were certainly a way of giving form to his vision of the world around him. A few years ago, he began making clay tiles on which he painted Pueblo dancers and dances in the traditional two-dimensional painting style of Santa Clara.

In 2003, Jason won his first major award, with a "Best of Division" at Santa Fe Indian Market for a set of his tiles depicting the Franciscan Saints. In 2004, he won the prestigious "Artist's Choice Award" for a large tile depicting the Pueblo Revolt. He was also commissioned by the Heard Museum in Phoenix, Arizona, to make a "Pueblo Revolt" tile for their permanent collection.

Jason is most recently the recipient of a 2007 Ronald and Susan Dubin Artist Fellow award at the Santa Fe's School of Advanced Research.

Today he uses hand-dug Santa Clara clay and mineral pigments to make tiles depicting traditional dances, pueblo landscapes and religious icons as they confront the contemporary realities of constant change.

Garcia sketches his designs on paper before transferring them to clay slabs he shapes by hand. A deceptively simple medium, clay tiles are actually notoriously hard to make because of their tendency to crack or warp during drying.

Garcia mixes the clay with volcanic ash to avoid breakage. He rolls the clay into a ball, then flattens it with his hands, leaving indentations and fingerprints to evoke the spirit of ancient pueblo pottery.

Jason received his Bachelor’s degree in Fine Arts from the University of New Mexico. His work has been presented at a one-man show at the Indian Pueblo Cultural Center in Albuquerque (2006-2007), and at group shows at the Museum of Fine Arts in Santa Fe, the Museum of Indian Arts and Culture, Santa Fe, and the Heard Museum in Phoenix.

He is also featured in Kim and Pat Messier’s Hopi & Pueblo Tiles and in Steve Trimble’s 20th anniversary edition of Talking with the Clay: The Art of Pueblo Pottery in the 21st Century from SAR Press.

Price: $2,250.00
(plus sh/han)

SOLD

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