| ON EARTH |
 |
Some day in the future say, 60,000 years from now archaeologists will
be digging through ruins in what used to be California, Texas, New Mexico,
and they will strike the hard surface of a pottery shard. Piecing fragments
together, they will discover a most remarkable vessel, pottery, but with
the form of an ancient Native American basket.
As
they wonder over the intricate woven designs baked into the clay basket's
unglazed surface, they will be admiring two levels of artistry: the pottery
of 20th century ceramicist David Salk and the basketry of 18th and 19th
century North American Indian tribes.
"There are so few basket weavers left now, it's become something
of a lost art," Salk said in an interview from his picturesque mountain
home. "Every time I make a basket it becomes a little like a fossil.
I bake the design into the clay with iron so it's there to stay. My baskets
should last 80,000 to 100,000 years. My hope is that someone in the future
will find the pieces and will appreciate these magnificent designs then
as much as I do now."
Salk, 39, said his love of Indian basketry has been with him since he
was a child. His family, which includes his uncle, Dr. Jonas Salk, the
microbiologist who developed the first successful polio vaccine, has always
sensed its kinship with all of humanity, he said. His mother and father,
both successful veterinarians, used to deliver medicines, food and clothing
to the Navajos in the Four Corners area of Arizona and New Mexico. As
a young boy, he would travel with his parents to the most remote stretches
of the reservation. The impressions developed on those early trips have
lasted a lifetime.
His sense of comfort with and appreciation for Native Americans held him
in good stead when, eight years ago, he earned an opportunity to study
with famed San Ildefonso potter Maria Martinez. A friendship formed during
this experience that lasted until her death in 1983.
"Working with her was absolutely the highlight of my life as a potter,"
Salk said with evident wonder. "She radiated a nobility of spirit
that was the most moving thing I've experienced. If I could be just a
fraction as gracious and humane as Maria was I will feel like I've accomplished
something?'
Salk learned much during the time he worked with Martinez, he said. The
most important lesson was how to be still, how to be calm inside and go
about the business of creating a pot without being anxious about the result,
how to keep working when the process didn't go quite right without being
angry or upset.
"I learned a kind of patience that I never would have absorbed any
other way. I just loved working with her. I've never enjoyed anything
more," he said. "And from her approach I developed a relationship
with the Earth that I wouldn't have known otherwise. She never took from
the earth without giving something back. If she took clay from a certain
place, she would make an offering of corn to show her gratitude.
"That kind of reverence made me much closer to my work than I'd ever
been. I realized how blessed I am to be able to do what I do. I see now
the privilege in my life."
Although Salk occasionally produces other ceramic work, he focuses primarily
on the clay baskets. They are part of the privilege he speaks of and even
a brief conversation with the potter reveals that the baskets are also
part of his calling.
Creating a clay basket is painstaking work. First Salk shapes the clay
in basket form and gives it the right texture. Then he gives it its first
firing at 1800 degrees to fix the shape. After this bisque firing comes
the meticulous work of using tiny brushes to fix the pattern inside and
out with iron guaranteed to outlast its creator.
"At this point, the medium becomes very unforgiving;' Salk said.
"It's very easy to smudge or smear. You don't just paint the decoration
on." To decorate an average sized pot takes about 15 hours of intense
work, he said.
Salk
said he didn't want to use glaze on his baskets because he loves the look
and texture of the natural clay. Contemporary potters are 'glaze crazy;'
he said, and he doesn't want to join in the madness. He selects clays
for their color and texture so they can accurately capture the patina
and feeling of the old baskets. Then, except for the decoration, the natural
beauty of the unglazed clay is allowed to freely express itself.
The basket is then fired a second time at 2400 degrees, the temperature
required to fire porcelain. This high-temperature firing fuses the iron
permanently into the body of the clay itself, creating. as Salk calls
it, a "fossilized version of the basket." The baskets are now
on Earth to stay.
When Salk speaks of the basketry of the Apache, Maidu, Pomo and other
tribes, it is with an almost mystical reverence. The baskets were a part
of their lives, he said. They were created with beauty, but for very practical
purposes, and the old baskets that are in museums and collections today
accompanied these ancient people through every aspect of their daily lives.
"It's almost as if the baskets are alive;" he said. "They
breathe, they have stories to tell. They're not completely inanimate."
Not surprisingly, Salk has begun to collect baskets himself. This is no
easy feat because the really fine old baskets are so rare, and so expensive.
And therein lies the reason many decorators and collectors have begun
to appreciate Salk's work. The best ancient baskets cost thousands of
dollars. Salk's work ranges from $65 to $495. According to Bill Bobb,
owner of Cristofs in Santa Fe, where Salk's clay baskets are shown.
Recognition continues to build for Salk's work for the past three years
he has won first place in ceramics at the prestigious La Quinta Arts Festival
near Palm Springs, California. He has been featured in several prestigious
magazines, and the editor of Ceramics Monthly has said that Salk's work
is completely unique in the field of ceramics.
But
for Salk, the work is not about recognition or prestige, although he is
pleased with both. He creates out of a sense of homage and duty to the
remarkable artisans whose work has already begun to surrender to the ravages
of time. The organic materials in ancient baskets by their very natures
can only last 5,000 years or so. Salk's work based on their creations
can last ten and twenty times that long. It is in a serendipitous pursuit,
perhaps, this creating for future millennia. But for Salk, it is work
worth doing.
"I want future generations to see these tribal designs. There's a
universal beauty here that deserves to live forever."
David Salk's clay baskets may be seen at Cristof's,
located at 106 West San Francisco Street.
Hours: 9:30-5:30 Monday-Saturday (505)988-9881.
Article from
FOCUS SANTA FE
Box 251, Glorieta, N.M. 87535
(505) 757-6661
Editor and Publisher: Hal Mayer
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