Olla

A rhythmic, abstract design encircles the center of this vessel. The artist responded to the contours of the jar by painting this wide, scalloped band around the nearly vertical walls and extending stylized, curvilinear imagery over the steeply tapering top. Artists from Zia Pueblo in northern New Mexico have long earned praise for compositions of paired birds and flora. The placement of these motifs above the central band distinguishes this work. At the point where this stylized imagery meets the abstract design, the painting evokes an undulating landscape of arroyos, or gullies that channel flash floods.