Elizabeth Toya Medina (Walatowa (Jemez Pueblo), born 1956). <em>Three Dances Water Jar</em>, ca. 1980. Clay, pigment, 6 1/4 x 7 1/2 in. (15.9 x 19.1 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Gift of Joann and Sidney Rosoff, 2012.26.3. Creative Commons-BY (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, CUR.2012.26.3.jpg)

Elizabeth Toya Medina (Walatowa (Jemez Pueblo), born 1956). Three Dances Water Jar, ca. 1980. Clay, pigment, 6 1/4 x 7 1/2 in. (15.9 x 19.1 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Gift of Joann and Sidney Rosoff, 2012.26.3. Creative Commons-BY (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, CUR.2012.26.3.jpg)

DOWNLOAD

Download our app and ask your own questions during your visit. Here are some that others have asked.

This has a classic shape, but was it traditionally fired?

The wife of this husband and wife pair, Elizabeth Toya Medina, learned the art of traditional Zia pottery-making from her mother-in-law and still creates the forms of the pots by hand from homemade clay. She does utilize traditional Zia firing techniques.

Thank you. I know quite a bit about traditional Puebla pottery and it was really hard to discern the firing technique especially because of their glaze technique which "appears" to be applied after firing. Do you know if it is?

Elizabeth Medina typically applies a white slip to her vessels before firing to create a background for painted designs. She likely did the same in this case. However, just based on how bright the white is on that vessel, it was likely painted over after firing by Marcellus Medina.

That makes sense. Thanks for the conversation!!

Three Dances Water Jar

Elizabeth Toya Medina, Marcellus Medina

Arts of the Americas

This water jar of classic Pueblo shape by Marcellus and Elizabeth Toya Medina, a husband and wife team, illustrates both the old and the new. Circling the jar, in the background, are depictions of traditional masked Kachinas who perform in religious ceremonies. Bursting into dance in front of these figures are naturalistic, muscled, male Pueblo dancers in very active dance positions, also wearing traditional regalia.

POTTER Elizabeth Toya Medina, Walatowa (Jemez Pueblo), born 1956

ARTIST Marcellus Medina, Zia, born 1954

MEDIUM Clay, pigment

DATES ca. 1980

DIMENSIONS 6 1/4 x 7 1/2 in. (15.9 x 19.1 cm) Diameter at narrowest point: 4 1/4 in. (10.8 cm) (show scale)

SIGNATURE Signed, on bottom: "Elizabeth Medina"; glyph: "Marcellus Medina".

COLLECTIONS Arts of the Americas

ACCESSION NUMBER 2012.26.3

CREDIT LINE Gift of Joann and Sidney Rosoff

EXHIBITIONS

American Art

MUSEUM LOCATION This item is not on view

CAPTION Elizabeth Toya Medina (Walatowa (Jemez Pueblo), born 1956). Three Dances Water Jar, ca. 1980. Clay, pigment, 6 1/4 x 7 1/2 in. (15.9 x 19.1 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Gift of Joann and Sidney Rosoff, 2012.26.3. Creative Commons-BY (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, CUR.2012.26.3.jpg)

IMAGE overall, CUR.2012.26.3.jpg. Brooklyn Museum photograph, 2014

"CUR" at the beginning of an image file name means that the image was created by a curatorial staff member. These study images may be digital point-and-shoot photographs, when we don\'t yet have high-quality studio photography, or they may be scans of older negatives, slides, or photographic prints, providing historical documentation of the object.

RIGHTS STATEMENT Creative Commons-BY

You may download and use Brooklyn Museum images of this three-dimensional work in accordance with a Creative Commons license. Fair use, as understood under the United States Copyright Act, may also apply. Please include caption information from this page and credit the Brooklyn Museum. If you need a high resolution file, please fill out our online application form (charges apply). For further information about copyright, we recommend resources at the United States Library of Congress, Cornell University, Copyright and Cultural Institutions: Guidelines for U.S. Libraries, Archives, and Museums, and Copyright Watch. For more information about the Museum's rights project, including how rights types are assigned, please see our blog posts on copyright. If you have any information regarding this work and rights to it, please contact copyright@brooklynmuseum.org.

RECORD COMPLETENESS

Not every record you will find here is complete. More information is available for some works than for others, and some entries have been updated more recently. Records are frequently reviewed and revised, and we welcome any additional information you might have.

Download our app and ask your own questions during your visit. Here are some that others have asked.

This has a classic shape, but was it traditionally fired?

That makes sense. Thanks for the conversation!!