smallthingsworthseeing

These beautiful jars made by Nico Griffith of Tartessos Arts captured my attention tonight.

I was thinking about something Herman Hesse wrote:

“There is no reality except the one contained within us. That is why so many people live such an unreal life. They take the images outside of them for reality and never allow the world within to assert itself.”
― Hermann Hesse, Steppenwolf

These jars – from the physical, not the virtual world came to mind when I found the ones that Griffith made.  (Deadman’s Fugitive Red olla  ca. AD 700 – 1175)  This undecorated pot with a reddish coloration is from a prehistoric culture call COHONINA.  These people originally lived in west of the San Francisco Peaks in Arizona.  They migrated northward into the region believe the south rim of the Grand Canyon and eastward into the area north of Sunset Crater and Wupatki National Monument.

This trio of vessels represent contemporary  Navajo potters.  The Navajo have been making pottery (historically women’s work although today both men and women create pottery) for personal and ceremonial use for hundreds of years. Pottery within this culture as an art form developed in the late 19th Century as the railroads brought tourists into the region. Navajo pottery is unique within native southwest cultures. Clays are hand dug and several clay types may be mixed together to adjust the chemical, physical and aesthetic properties. They do not grind up old pottery shards to add to the clay for temper like other tribes. The Navajo consider old pottery to be the property of their Anasazi ancestors and not to be disturbed. The pots are created using a coil and pinch technique.  They are then pit fired with juniper wood for several hours.

Containers – our own or those we have crafted, out of clay, out of wood, out of pages.