Jessie Garcia, Jar

Written by USU Student Adam Addley

February 24, 2017

Situated 300 feet above the valley floor on a plateau 60 miles west of Albuquerque, is Acoma Pueblo also known as Sky City, home to Jessie Garcia of the Sun Clan.[1] 

Garcia is recognized as one of the most influential Acoma potters of the last century, along with contemporaries Lucy Lewis and Marie Chino.  Although Jessie did not start in the potter’s world as early as Lucy and Marie, she went on to become a celebrated Acoma potter with her Anasazi Revival black-on-white pots, traditional polychrome, and corrugated ollas, jars, bowls, and vases. Jessie Garcia was also the mother and mother in-law to three recognized potters from the Acoma Peublo: Anita Lowden, Stella Shutiva (daughters), and Sarah Garcia (daughter in-law). 

This particular piece is an example of one of Jessie’s greatest accomplishments, the revival of ancient corrugated white ware.¹ The piece is made using coils, seen by the clear delineation throughout the pot. Where the fingers would usually have compressed the clay, she uses a die to stamp the coils with a crisp triangle shape, giving the pot a corrugated texture and pattern. The pattern is continuous through the whole pot with no clear termination point from the lip to the foot.  While this revived technique does not fit with the approach of Garcia’s contemporaries, who were drawing detailed patterns onto their surfaces, the repetition created by the stamp gives a similar appearance as the two-dimensional patterns that were popular at the time. 

Sources: 
1. “Jessie C. Garcia (1910-1999).” Jessie C. Garcia. Accessed April 15, 2016. http://www.adobegallery.com/artist/J_Garcia 161487258

This month's From the Vault is part of an object-based research assignment from Professor Sandra Charlson's course ARTH 3340 Native North American Art.