Lonnie Vigil (b. 1949) Resurrecting Micaceous Pottery
Imagine being a native of Nambe Pueblo near Santa Fe who finished a college education and then moved to Washington, D.C., where you established yourself as a financial consultant. It's the story of success, right?
But then, at 33, you attended a presentation at the Kennedy Center called Night of the First Americans and realized that nothing you were doing was feeding your soul. What would you do?
For Lonnie Vigil, it wasn't a hard choice. He quit his job and moved back to New Mexico, where he spent time at the School of American Research and with his family at Nambe. His great-grandmother and aunts were potters, and he felt a strong connection to working with clay. At the time, micaceous clay pottery had nearly disappeared. A few potters at San Juan Pueblo were still working with this clay, with small pieces of mica that catch the light and reflect it off the pot's surface.
Vigil was not just drawn to the clay; he became obsessed with it and took Nambe pottery to a much higher quality level than before. It starts with the clay he gathers from the traditional beds at the Pueblo in the fall, summer, and late spring. "We don't disturb Mother Earth in the winter when she sleeps."
The work was coiled and fired in the traditional manner of Pueblo pottery, but the finished pieces are several steps above! His work has won several blue ribbons at the Santa Fe Indian Market, and it is included in the collections of most major museums of Native American art.
While he keeps the art form alive and encourages new artists, he maintains a distinct connection with the traditional pots of the past, which were used for cooking and storage. Most of his work is symmetrical and features thin walls, with some pieces having lids and others being open at the top.
We have three lovely micaceous pots that are excellent examples of his work, as well as one earlier plate, made when he first returned to New Mexico in the 1980s, featuring red clay and an Avanyu serpent.
