 And welcome to your daily barns takeout. My name is Karl Walsh. I am a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Research, Interpretation and Education here at the barns. And today I wanted to take you to a case that I've been particularly missing at the moment because I'm used to seeing this every day at the museum when I'm walking to my workspace in the library. And so this is something that's kind of like intimately part of my daily life at work, which I'm currently very much missing. So as you can see, this is a big glass case full of Pueblo ceramics and Pueblo and Navajo jewelry. And it's really this incredible case that I really just love to come down and have a look at when I'm on a break or when I'm having my lunch and just sit and have a look at it because it's full of these wonderful colors and patterns and designs that I think really nicely kind of contrast and engage with the stone background behind the case as well. And I just find these really interesting and really engaging. So it's something I wanted to share as well. And today I wanted to talk about a particular vessel that is in this case. And this is on the top right hand side of the case right here. And this little vessel is really, really nice. And I have a real connection to this one as well, because I've spent a couple of times actually just sitting in front of it and sketching it a little bit because I really just enjoy the patterns on it and the colors and things as well. And it's kind of black and white coloration works well for just a sketch. So here it is up close. And I think my interest in this vessel probably mirrors in a lot of ways what Barnes was interested in about these ceramics as well. And he came to know these artworks particularly through his visits to the American Southwest in the early 1930s. And this came about mostly because his wife Laura Barnes had been having some problems with her sinus condition and her doctor prescribed her to take some time somewhere warm and dry that would help with recovery from this complication that she was having. And so the Barnes's decided to go and have a visit around the area of Phoenix and Santa Fe in New Mexico and they also went to Arizona as well. And Laura was very opposed to this. She really had to be kind of like forced to go. And she stayed out there for a couple of months and Barnes went out there for about three weeks and then continued to be in touch obviously with his wife as she was staying there as well. So he came to know and to be introduced to all of the wonderful southwestern Native American arts such as tapestry weaving and blanket-making, ceramics and jewelry. And he was also kind of introduced into the local art circles here as well who also were producing kind of wonderful pieces of art. And the area around Santa Fe today continues to be a hotspot for kind of artistic works and for Native American art as well. So it's a really good place to go visit today as well. And what I like about Barnes's interest in these ceramics as well was that he was very much interested in obviously the very appealing decoration that's on them but also he was interested in the kind of the human aspect to them as well. When he was selecting ceramics to buy he wasn't just looking at the decoration but he was looking for things that were that were damaged and that were used and have this kind of sense of a human use to them as well. So they're not just kind of things that are art but also things that are human. And as an archaeologist I obviously really I'm also interested in that as well and I find that really interesting about you know what he found engaging about these objects. And I think it also adds something really interesting visually to them as well. I mean if you look at this pot you can see that at the top it has this kind of you know damaged and kind of broken rim which I think really nicely contrasts in terms of its kind of texture and its silhouette as well with the decoration that is on the body as well. So I think it creates this really interesting kind of contrast between kind of smooth and regular lines and you know broken and irregular lines as well. So I think this is probably why he was also interested in you know finding things that had damage on them as well. But in terms of the decoration this can be quite I know when I first looked at this type of art it can be quite overwhelming it looks really complex but actually a lot of the ceramics feature very simple types of iconography only dealing with maybe one or two subjects. And often for these types of jars there are things that connect to the natural world particularly to wind and water which are obviously really important life-giving aspects to southwestern American communities particularly access to water. And so the decoration on these actually alludes to different kind of ideas about water. And at the top here around the neck we actually have a series of stylized renderings of rain birds and through their kind of curving beaks like this and their plumage they're kind of really evoking a sense of the movement and fluidity and kind of swirling nature of water and wind. And really trying to kind of take you and evoke to you to these kind of instances of when rain and water is appearing in the environment. And even in things like these little hatchings and parallel lines they kind of evoke senses of like curtains of rain and droplets of rain appearing out of the sky and things. So they're very kind of evocative I think as well. And the body decoration is also very distinctive as well because it also has this rainbowed motif but this one is really sprawling it moves all across and around the body and it really kind of gets you to think about looking at the entire object you kind of want to follow around it and to look and see how all these patterns are interlocking and how they're changing and there's so much kind of asymmetry to it as well that you know everything is different every time you move it around you see something different and new and not repetitive which is which is interesting. And again similar kind of techniques for evoking things like water with like these hatched lines and parallel lines and the use of you know kind of triangles and things to kind of get this sense of like the movement of water falling as well. So this is a really interesting way that they kind of the Zuni Pueblo peoples are kind of evoking the sense of the changeable movement and nature of wind and water and linking it in with their own beliefs of kind of mythology and cosmology. And a lot of these jars would actually be very utilitarian in nature they would be designed for collecting water often by women but there could also be highly ceremonial in nature and very kind of important players in Zuni Pueblo ceremonies as well so they have this interesting dual nature of being you know something utilitarian but also something really special as well. And of course the theme of rain and water is also expressed through the materiality of the of the object as well. It's made from clay and obviously to to form it you need to actually interact with water in kind of shaping it and adding water to it so it inherently has this kind of water aspect about it anyway because of just the material that it's made from and of course like the paint and pigments as well and the slip that is used to decorate it and color it or all use water as well. So it has this kind of inherent waterness about it as well which I think is is great to think about as well. Obviously the form is also specifically meant to hold water you can just look at it you can see it has this big bulbous body which is meant to contain all this liquid within it and then it tapers towards the top and towards the rim so that it has more of a closed mouth which you know prevents things from spilling out of it easily and the big bulbous body uses like stability as well with all that weight of the water that's in it too. So the form of the vessel is also inherently you know related to water as well. So you get this lovely engagement and I think kind of interconnectedness between the materials, the making, the form, its function and the decoration as well very much relates to this too and I think it really helps to highlight the importance of rain and water and wind to the Zuni Pueblo peoples. So I hope you enjoyed this barn's takeout and when you're next in the museum please come and go and take some time to have a look in this case in the lower lobby. It's outside of the main gallery space so sometimes I feel like it doesn't get quite as much of the love and attention that it deserves and have a think about those themes of wind and water and the environment and nature when you're looking at this case and have an idea maybe about what barns is trying to communicate there too. So if you haven't already please subscribe to the barn's takeout and to get your daily serving of art and leave a comment. I really really enjoy reading these and responding to them as well. So I hope you enjoyed this and take care and be safe. I'm Tom Collins, new Bauer family executive director of the barn's foundation. I hope you enjoyed barn's takeout. Subscribe and make sure your post notifications are on to get daily servings of art. Thanks for watching and for your support of the barn's foundation.