Artist Bio:
Aaron Cajero was born in 1966
into the Jemez Pueblo. Aaron is a member of the Fire Clan. He
began working with clay art in 1993. He learned the traditional
way of hand coiling pottery using ancient methods from the members
of his family. They taught him all the fundamentals of working
with clay artforms. Aaron was quoted as saying:
“I enjoy working with
pottery because it’s an expression of how I feel about the
beauty in nature and native American arts using all natural materials
with mother earth has blessed us with.”
Aaron specializes in a very
unique style of pottery which is a contemporary hand polished
style. He harvests his natural slips and clumps of raw clay from
within the Jemez Pueblo. He breaks down the clumps of clay and
adds sand to temper the clay and hand mixes with water and begins
the hand coiling process the traditional way, which is rolling
out the moist clay into snake like coils.
Once his vessels are formed
he sets them out to dry. Once his pieces are fully dried Aaron
sands his vessels for a smooth finish. He hand carves various
designs such as: bears, feathers, eagles, and serpents known
as Avanyu’s which are believed to protect Pueblo People.
He stone polishes his pieces
to give it a beautiful shine. Aaron also fires his pottery the
traditional way, outdoors with cedar woodchips.
He signs his pottery as: Aaron
Cajero, Jemez. He is related to: Joe Cajero (father), Esther
Cajero (mother), Joe, Jr., Cajero (brother), Joetta Cajero, Loretta
Cajero (sisters), Anita Cajero (spouse), Teri Cajero (daughter),
and Aaron Cajero, Jr. (son).