Located eight miles from the entrance to Mesa Verde National Park, near the Four Corners National Monument in historic downtown Cortez,
Colorado -- Clay Mesa is the home and studio of southwest artists Richard & Lesli St. John. This husband and wife team is famous
for their use of brilliant color and original designs reminiscent of the Four Corners and the Southwest.
Every piece of
work produced at Clay Mesa is completely hand made and unique. Formed from slabs and coils while the clay is wet, each piece is slapped
leaving the artist's handprint. A trademark of their work, the handprint not only personalizes each piece but it also symbolizes a
transfer of energy from the artist to the art.
After the plates are formed and allowed to dry they represent a blank canvas.
Each plate is fired four times; a total of thirty-six to forty hours of firing time. The first three firings prepare the plates for
the actual application of color, which is then achieved in the fourth or fifth final firing. Decorating the plates requires long and
tedious hours of glaze application. If everything is not perfectly executed, the glazes will lose their color and crawl. When this
happens, the work is a lost cause. All of the hours spent decorating and firing are in vain. However, when everything "clicks" the
results are dazzling.
The vivid colors are achieved through a ceramic process called "color bonding." It is a completely original
process that can only be found on the work produced at Clay Mesa. Developed by Richard over a period of twenty-four years the color
bonding process allows glazes to melt but not flow, which in turn makes it possible to create a dimensional surface of brilliant colors.
Most significant are the various shades of true red that are achieved through the bonding process.
Aesthetic decisions are made
independently. Richard's work is reminiscent of the simple beauty found in Navajo textiles. He describes his work as "just a collection
of those things which appeal to my senses."
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