Inez Ortiz
Cochiti
Cochiti Storyteller
8 3/4"
H x 4 1/2" W
Inez Ortiz is the daughter
of well known Cochiti potter Seferina Ortiz. Seferina's son,
and Inez's brother, is the famed potter Virgil Ortiz.
Pottery that is traditionally
Cochiti in all respects has been disappearing for several decades.
With the creation of storytellers by Helen Cordero at Cochiti
in 1964, and their ensuing popularity, most Cochiti potters turned
to the production of these highly marketable forms.
What was largely abandoned
was the older Cochiti style which focused on animal and human
figures. In the late 1980s, Virgil Ortiz began to recreate the
bizarre and unusual human figures that were done at Cochiti in
the early 20th century. He has continued to explore this style,
taking it to new and even stranger forms. His family, impressed
and inspired by his success, started to also pot in the older
Cochiti style making human and animal figures using traditional
Cochiti slips and firing outdoors.
Inez Ortiz is part of this
small rennaissance taking place at Cochiti Pueblo. While most
potters there have discontinued the use of the natural slips,
due to their unavailability, and have switched to kiln-firing,
due to convenience, Inez continues to use traditional slips and
firing techniques to create wonderful pottery inspired by the
work of her predecessors one hundred years earlier.
