"Vientos" finds a home.

On our second trip to Mata Ortiz, we were able to purchase a signed painting by Juan Quezada entitled "Vientos" or "winds" in English. Juan was the founder of the pottery movement in the central state of Chihuahua, Mexico. He found some prehistoric Casas Grandes pottery as a young man while herding cattle. It occurred to him that if the pottery was there, then all the ingredients must be there as well. Thus began his quest to learn the ancient potter's skills. Over many years, he finally perfected the methods and produced some beautiful work.

Juan was not protective of his newly learned artistic skills, even after he began to earn worldwide fame for his work. He realized that if he taught his family and friends, he could change their lives as his had been changed. There are now over 300 potters in this small adobe village. Many earn a very good living, even by U.S. standards. Each one works in much the same way that their ancestors did, making pottery from the native clays, decorating them with pigments from local minerals, and firing them with cottonwood bark or dung. Every time we have visited, Juan takes time to talk with us. Here he is with his son and Chelane, when she purchased one of Alvaro's pots.

Juan's pottery never sells for less than five or six thousand dollars for a small pot. Many sell for much, much more and are placed in museums around the world. For this reason, we never thought we would be able to own a Juan Quezada work. Juan painted four of his pottery designs on paper. We purchased one of his paintings years ago and have never been able to show it until now. We tried to get it framed when we came home from Mexico, but they wanted over $300 dollars to have it framed. We finally found a frame and modified it ourselves last week. We can now enjoy the beauty of Juan's artistry at home. No longer do we need to risk our lives travelling through areas controlled by the drug cartels to see the incredible skills of one of the world's greatest living artists.