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Coy Quakenbush
USA
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“It’s like a tug of war between me and the clay. When I listen to it well, it performs in such beautiful ways, it sometimes takes your breath away.”
It seems just a few years ago, a boy was walking along the banks of the creek on the edge of his grandpa’s property. When he stops to look around, he starts digging his bare toes into the mud at the edge of the water. As he watches the snails make trails in the underwater mud, he is thinking of how excited his friends will be when they see the arrowhead, he just found beside the trail to the Creek Crossing.
The Eye of Storm | Watercolor
$225
8 X 10
Does a good storm bother you? How about a bad storm? Either way, look out for this one. It has come from the southwest looking for you. This painting is inspired by Mimbres designs from the ancient southwest area. I used colored clay slips to make /// the colors and do the line work on canvas.
He is wondering how long ago the Sissapahaw Indians lost it there; and how could they just “lose” an arrowhead. As he meanders slowly back home in time for supper, thousands of questions, like little bees, are buzzing around in his head, wondering, searching, waiting for the correct answers.
EYES SEE YOU ! | Watercolor
$245
11 X 14
This could be an alien landscape. It is painted using the same colored clay slips and tiny brushes like I use to decorate the clay vessels I make. Please watch out. The eyes are watching you!!
Moving ahead 60 years or so, many of those thousands of questions, along with many, many more that materialized through the years have finally found answers. Those answers came from many venues like classrooms, conferences, instructors, workshops, knowledgeable individuals, historians, and Master of Art in various fields. Knowledge has answered all the “whys.”
“I get inspiration from nature which is all around me every day and even in my dreams sometimes.”
What you are witnessing is a culmination of all the answers. Most of his work involves hand building with clay and various styles of firing. These are techniques first used a couple of thousand years ago mixed with a lot of finesse to produce some amazing pottery, sculptures, and paintings.
Paradigm to the Future | Ceramics
$975
16 X 11
The intermingled pyramid. So much essence of power. Abated power. Moving through each one, gaining momentum.
This piece is hand-built with clay from my back yard You will notice the largest base / cave painting, representing the past. The second and third pyramids have Mimbres Designs, representing the present time now. The smaller top pyramid is curved to the heavens carrying the inner power of the pyramids and you into the future.
The Nautilus. Where to start. So pretty. So mysterious. Private. Deep water. Dark depths. Where can this nautilus take you in it’s underwater journeys. Such a strong design, yet calming and serene. This pot is hand built in the Mata Ortiz method of using large coils to make the shape by pinching and squeezing each added coil to finish the shape. Then when it is dry, the pot is first scraped, then sanded, and burnished. Now it is ready to decorate with the clay slips and fire.
The Nautilus | Ceramics
$515
X 8
When he first started working with clay, he wanted to learn how to make Southwest-style pottery. He started by buying some clay in a bag, a videotape named “The Potters of Mata Ortiz,” and a book from the library about Mimbres pottery designs.
“Admirers of my work give me the credit. But, I know, in my heart, that The Earth only lends to me her clay to make artwork that is so beautiful in everyone’s mind. When I talk to clay as my workpiece progresses, wonderful things come about.”
“As you look upon each creation I shape with my hands, the Earth smiles on me as each piece is finished, while also bestowing blessings on each of our clay artists to continue our work.”
The Mimbres people were a clan of Native Americans that lived and flourished in the area of lower Arizona, lower New Mexico, and upper Chihuahua, Mexico. Among other things they are known for their painted, fine-lined, black, designs on white slipped clay pottery from about 200 AD to 1100 AD. Their designs were, and still are the mainstay of my inspiration as I form the clay into pots and sculptures.
Dripping Up | Ceramics
$465
10 X 10
Does this pot actually have Clay slip dripping UP?? What is going on here. This is a “one of a kind” piece. This pot was fired outside in a bonfire, sealed in a metal container. The white drips are that color because when firing, the air seal developed a small hole, and the tiny bit of oxygen wafting through, was perfectly lined with the drips to turn them back to white, but keep the rest of the pot Black. It cannot be reproduced because it happened accidentally; therefore, another impossible
The videotape shows several potters in Mata Ortiz, Mexico, making, decorating, and firing their exquisite pottery. One of the main people shown on the tape was the Master Potter Juan Quezada who revived the pottery tradition in Mata Ortiz and shared his knowledge with his family and then anyone else in the small town that wanted to learn.
Genie In A Bottle | Ceramics
$275
6 X 6
This small 3 faced jar. Fired to be Black on Black. Has that WOW!!! Factor. Silver flashes all around and very beautiful. The three faced Genie is ready to tell your fortune. Good? Bad?? Indifferent?? What will it be?? She looks happy doesn’t she? The pot was hand made using an extruded clay technique filling in between the three face shapes to shape and form the tri-corner design. Then it was sanded and burnished to a high shine, to be fired outside in a reduction bonfire to get the black.
He watched what was being shown and tried to do the same thing in his small workshop. He even made the brushes from human hair, as was used in Mata Ortiz. He practiced and practiced until he got all the techniques down, as to how to make, decorate, and fire his own, Mata Ortiz-style pots. Then he tried to get better from practice to make that, seldom achieved, “perfect pot.”
Stand Back!!! LOOK at that pot!!!! It could hold 5 gallons of wine on a good day. I was inspired after reading and watching the Lord of the Rings. This is the largest vessel I have ever made. It was a challenge, but I enjoyed every minute of the work.
This pot is hand built with clay. The long spouts as well as the chains are all made of clay. Once it was built,
then I had to scrape, sand, and burnish the entire surface.
I think the Runes on the pot, give an extra special appeal.
Elfin Ceremonial Wine Decanter | Ceramics
$3,600
42 X 21
“My wish is that you will enjoy my artwork as much as I do.”
Spiraling Pyramid | Ceramics
$1,500
20 X 20
This spiral pyramid design is inspired from rock art symbols found throughout the southwest. Then it is enhanced using steel nails of various sizes. When hanging this way in the main picture, you feel encompassed by an uplifting mood. But hanging in other directions, may not give that same feeling. Look at this one and tell me what feel. Humm?? This sculpture is made with extruded Micaceous clay tubes manipulated into the circular motion as it is now. Micaceous Clay comes from NM.
He managed to add some wonderful knowledge to his endeavors by getting into a double weekend workshop with Master Potter Hector Gallegos and his wife, Graciela. Then about a year later, he managed to get into a two-week intensive workshop at Andersen Ranch in Colorado. The instructors for this event were THE Master Potter Juan Quezada, himself, and his American counterpart, Michael Wisner. This is when he learned to dig natural clay and process it to use in my pottery making. That was in 1990, and he still practices every day to achieve that “Perfect Pot.”
This pot has combined 2 different design motifs into a very unique piece. The diamonds in the middle divide the mountain trails at the top of the piece from the valley trails on the lower part. Yes! Very pretty!
This is a fairly large pot fashioned in the older Casa Grande style or possibly the Pueblo pottery style. This pot is hand built, scraped and sanded, then water smoothed with a damp rag to get a smoothe surface for decorating. The pattern and colors are very pleasing to the eyes.
Diamond Trails | Ceramics
$950
25 X 18
Who knew the same clay that little boy wiggled in between his toes so many years ago in a small creek in central North Carolina would be a lifelong interest to him as he moved through life? He now owns his piece of that same little creek and still digs clay there to make some of my pottery. He also uses that same clay to make water-based colors that he uses to paint on the canvases as well as on his pottery.
High Desert Flower | Ceramics
$1,175
25 X 18
Paper Clay and paper Clay slip have unique properties that allow a whole new range of designing in clay artwork. This sculpture was made by assembling a number of clay and slip techniques to finish it so neatly. A clay extruder was used extensively throughout the building process. Some of the leaves were made with a slab roller. Some of the pieces were extruded separately, then assembled onto the main set using clay slip. The colors were inspired from pics of the high desert in full bloom.
“At present, I am in the ‘Make It Happen Stage’ of my life.”
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