¡Colores!; 607; Nathan Youngblood, Thomas Vigil, Fabiola Cabeza de Baca

Funding for Frederick Hammersley Foundation >>THIS TIME, ON COLORES! STRIKING IN ITS PERFECTION AND RICH LEGACY, SANTA CLARA POTTER MASTERY OF TRADITIONAL FORMS >>I see a spectacular piece because I know I didn't make I think that I am so lucky to be >>ESPANOLA'S THOMAS VIGIL IS CULTURE, RELIGIOUS CONTROVERSIAL LOW BROW ART. >>We're forgetting about our forgetting about where we came They're disappearing. So, I feel that it's keep those traditions alive. >>EDUCATOR, NUTRITIONIST, NEW MEXICO'S FIRST COOKBOOKS,

LIFELONG PASSION WAS TO SHARE >>I really think it was about communities, about how to >>IT'S ALL AHEAD ON COLORES! >>IT'S ALL ABOUT THE CLAY. ♪ ♪ >>Youngblood: I made my first when I was 14 years old. And so, ♪ ♪ >>It takes a lifetime to learn >>You literally live your craft. ♪ ♪ >>Everything that we have comes

(Crackling fire) Making pottery I wouldn't call it a religious part of the spiritual experience We're You learn to be a (crackling fire) >>I lived with my grandparents grandmother said, "You're going My great-grandmother was My grandmother is Margaret My grandfather Alcario Tafoya. My mother Mela Youngblood. I think because she did something She was able to make huge

You're talking about a lady who And we used to joke that from the inside because she She would make, you know, 25, 30 27 inches across. So, when she'd stand next to it, of the work that she did. I think about my grandmother Don't be scared of the clay. If it doesn't But, you won't know unless you And from that, I learned the we quit. And so, I, working, I hear my grandmother tell What they taught me, gave me So, when I'm working with the I'm trying to...

I'm trying to be (crackling fire) >>I was taught to respect it. Live it. Give it a hundred percent or <It still has a ways to go. It's helping us to get to begin to turn it black.> I would make pots and then I And, she'd look at it and she'd Take it off and do Sometimes I'd burnish a piece 10 "Okay, that's good enough to I'd go outside because I didn't make it right. I've had a lot of pieces that I to make a nice beautiful jar" and a nice neck on it, And, I'd cut it

And crack again. And finally, the crack would would be a bowl. It's because clay It didn't want to <I can't teach you how to feel. How to tell the How to feel when an air pocket You only learn by doing.> Every step has If you don't the next steps <Here's an air See how that little blister rose You Break it up, like a bubble. It's never the It's always the ones you I found that the difference what you're doing and being OK sometimes just an extra five or an extra 15 minutes in this Just take that a little farther.

Get your channels a Get your edges a little bit You have to work in extra >>The most challenging part is had pieces where I've had ideas to make this. And I want to put this design And I'll make them four or five Now, I might take the same shape and It comes important things my grandfather the pot, and it will tell you So, I draw my designs on with And then, I'll go all the way And I can tell whether the pot wants to have on it. Or it's not working. And then

off and I'll start over Most of the designs of the things I learned from my Why is snake design, or And among a lot of people the connects us, the streams bigger rivers, to oceans. Among We either have the paw print or little bit like a Greek key, and And my favorite story is... I guess, had a major drought in the

And the story goes that the and So one tribe took the last of the strongest "If you don't find water, we're So he's looking and he's looking the village and he notices, "I'm If I could find an water was." So, he comes upon a bear. And he follows the bear. And the bear And he And the bear drinks, and then he So, he goes to canteens that he had. And the people go back to the stream And because of that, on our that we're thinking intend to

a bear paw, or a carved And, that's out of respect for ♪ ♪ >>When I get a particularly piece We got it And, I'm just amazed. I can't I see a And I don't think I made make that. ♪ ♪ I think that I'm so lucky to be the bottom line is short: I'm And I want to go do

>>THOMAS VIGIL REFLECTS HIS NEW ♪ ♪ >>Vigil: I've always had to pick pencil, a pen, a crayon, >>Vigil: When I was exposed to at a young age, I felt like that There's something about creating ♪ ♪ >>Lopez: Can you tell me about snippet, or origin story, for >>Vigil: I've always forced and oils and paint because that's what I was I eventually realized It was the that was kind of standing going to continue to do artwork,

♪ ♪ >>Vigil: It's when I was trying everybody else was doing things wasn't ever whole. And now that I'm breaking the way, painting what I want to is where I'm really succeeding. ♪ ♪ >>Lopez: How do your mixed media >>Vigil: More than anything I've worked on license I've worked on old scrap pieces Some things can be found around At one point I of Transportation if they had And they actually The found objects themselves,

old piece of rusty trash. It's something that, this, once plate that they had on their God knows how far it's somebody's shed and then got dump, and somebody else picked I feel like every found object To place historical figures on brings those stories to life. The Bible itself is feel like I'm combining the historical stories. And bringing and trying to convey something ♪ ♪ >>Lopez: When you made that

>>Vigil: I have always been I grew up in the church and I found myself, more so rather listening to the lecture, the walls, and all the and altars and I found the actual lecture. And it's Obviously, you hear all these Bible and from Saints you become a better person. At these images were speaking to them, I realized that they And the images themselves >>Lopez: Can you share an favorite stories that you told >>Vigil: I've always been For some reason, that image and even though I didn't

a young kid, asking the about Mary's seven sorrows, that Jesus had died, and And the Virgin Mary itself is artwork over and over again. I've painted her a hundred But the Lady of Sorrows sitting in front of her with and each sword has its own >>Lopez: Why >>Vigil: what Jesus went that he gave his life so that we And she, as a mother, I feel to see her child go And, La Pieta and Our Lady of to that the imagery that people

pain, has always been something It's And what other new way that speaks to the ♪ ♪ >>Lopez: Thomas, How do you feel about reinventing >>Vigil: I feel that it's a I feel that people forget where with everything that's happening tragedies, stuff, our minds are overloaded And we're forgetting

We're forgetting about where we and values, they're So, I feel those traditions alive, those We really need to continue by creating things with this I'm hoping to keep these things don't really care what religion to have religion or to have some it's a good thing. We should all be concerned about treating >>FABIOLA CABEZA DE BACA WAS A TRADITION AND CULTURE. ♪ ♪ >>Lopez: Fabiola Cabeza de Baca

articulate writer, prolific What made her so >>Perea: Well I think in terms things that comes to her mom died when she was very So, she was and a lot of the Vaqueros. And so if you think about the really stark landscape. She describes it in without despair. It looks flat. It doesn't look anything like, green lush valleys. Some days it hasn't rained bleaches white. So it looks like a landscape brave, right? Because to see that kind of openness, to try to find water and make a that's so hard to access, I think you have no choice, but And I really think, you know, community and thought And how are we

But, "How can we take these rural New Mexico?" One of the things that's really became an extension agent. So, her work like her schoolwork She talks about it as kind of And you read her work and it's you put together, you know, to nutritional kind of value, like what do you call it, minerals we would never think about. And so, I extension agent, she was really, knowledge out to the So she went to the, you know, But, she went does talk really interestingly part of these communities. Like, she even talks about San to think about, you know, Pueblo little more isolated. But she talks about becoming and these were like... and like relatives. And I think

she was probably to go visit her family, right? >>Lopez: And she's the author of New Mexico? >> Perea: Right, yes. She is. That came out in the recipes, you know. And it's interesting, because I think of cookbooks as just being in her work, it's really about culture and really thinking caretakers sitting around in the kitchen, >>Lopez: Right. And it seems those cultural practices in her <yes> but also brought >> Perea: I really think it was the communities, you know. About how to make life a How to incorporate these new technologies One of the things she focuses on cookers and how pressure cookers than, you know, your wood stove

it's just like, she is spreading think sound, like kind of, you insignificant, but it's Like, it changes the way Prior to her work, she comes in and it's about And I think that's also a really know, how to keep the stuff that accessible throughout the winters in the Llano Estecado My grandmother was still using a cooker in the 1980s and That's really what I thought archives is it's Cabeza de Baca going through, save time and >>Lopez: And in what ways did her >> Perea: So she had that of updated it in the good life.

what she does in that cookbook with the seasons, with the work. One of the big seasons planting season. So, up in Las Vegas where she's Mexico you can kind of count before May. So, on May 15th, that's when people plant, like And that's when the ceremonies field and all of this really So, throughout talks about, "At this time of Or, "At this time of year, how we preserved it. And this is when And then, you know, she combines practices. >>Lopez: Have >> Perea: Yes, I've tried the right? It's cake. Posole, also because it's easy. There's the intimidating, like she talks every day. I'm never <Yeah> There's stuff that, you

now, we're The three sisters: corn, beans makes sure that that's part of cookbook. So, it actually is, you know, Like anybody could pick recipes. >>Lopez: Do you think she wanted into the future? >> Perea: I think it's a She wanted make things easier for these communities across the state. But I also think she wanted which is why she talks so much interact with these particular Because there's something we're There's, you know, in winter, So, she talks about like, you stove in activities like weaving those are things that are very So, it's cultural practicality, with technology. >>Lopez: Why is her work >> Perea: In terms of just probably the most basic one,

it's teaching we were doing, you know, almost But the is because you've seen, I know the kind of movement towards in our state and across, Because, we really do need to scarcity of our resources. And she's really doing that in she's had to Those resources were always It's important also to understand food ways, you know, It's good for us to follow the food in our body at that ♪ ♪ >> Perea: And to think... as years ago, 90 years ago... we right? She was leaving She has these sections in her it's like, you know, there's this reputation of New

But we were actually always kind and I think she reminds us of >>Lopez: She was a wandering >> Perea: Laughter. Yes! With a very >>TO VIEW THIS AND OTHER COLORES New Mexico PBS Also, LOOK FOR US ON FACEBOOK "UNTIL NEXT >>Funding for COLORES was

Frederick Hammersley Foundation,