Jason Garcia
Santa Clara
Sentinels
11" H
x 8" W
Jason is the son of noted
potters Gloria Garcia (Goldenrod) and John Garcia. His early
ceramics work focused primarily on figures and capturing Pueblo
dances and activities in clay.
“I learned by watching
and learning from my parents and other family members, including
my aunts and grandmothers.” His work on tile, creating “two
dimensional images on a three dimensional surface, was inspired
by the late Pablita Velarde’s mineral paintings on masonite.”
As he was also interested
in photography and drawing, the figures were certainly a way
of giving form to his vision of the world around him. A few years
ago, he began making clay tiles on which he painted Pueblo dancers
and dances in the traditional two-dimensional painting style
of Santa Clara.
In 2003, Jason won his first
major award, with a "Best of Division" at Santa Fe
Indian Market for a set of his tiles depicting the Franciscan
Saints. In 2004, he won the prestigious "Artist's Choice
Award" for a large tile depicting the Pueblo Revolt. He
was also commissioned by the Heard Museum in Phoenix, Arizona,
to make a "Pueblo Revolt" tile for their permanent
collection.
Jason is most recently the
recipient of a 2007 Ronald and Susan Dubin Artist Fellow award
at the Santa Fe's School of Advanced Research.
Today he uses hand-dug Santa
Clara clay and mineral pigments to make tiles depicting traditional
dances, pueblo landscapes and religious icons as they confront
the contemporary realities of constant change.
Garcia sketches his designs
on paper before transferring them to clay slabs he shapes by
hand. A deceptively simple medium, clay tiles are actually notoriously
hard to make because of their tendency to crack or warp during
drying.
Garcia mixes the clay with
volcanic ash to avoid breakage. He rolls the clay into a ball,
then flattens it with his hands, leaving indentations and fingerprints
to evoke the spirit of ancient pueblo pottery.
Jason received his Bachelor’s
degree in Fine Arts from the University of New Mexico. His work
has been presented at a one-man show at the Indian Pueblo Cultural
Center in Albuquerque (2006-2007), and at group shows at the
Museum of Fine Arts in Santa Fe, the Museum of Indian Arts and
Culture, Santa Fe, and the Heard Museum in Phoenix.
He is also featured in Kim
and Pat Messier’s Hopi & Pueblo Tiles and in Steve Trimble’s
20th anniversary edition of Talking with the Clay: The Art of
Pueblo Pottery in the 21st Century from SAR Press.
