Maya
This is Maya. She is the jaguar who watches over Casa de los Tulipanes. Maya is the progeny of the late Alberto Bautista Gomez who specialized in burnished clay pieces. Bautista Gomez began working with clay in his teens in his village of Amatenango del Valle in Chiapas, Mexico under his grandmother’s tutelage. All the materials he uses are gathered locally from Amatenango and neighboring villages. He would grind and sift all of his own clay to make his pieces.
“The firing is done on the ground, the pieces covered with broken pieces of pottery and burning wood, forming a sort of pyre. The process takes a little over an hour and the low temperatures at which the pieces are baked result in their being porous and fragile. After the fire dies down, they are left to cool in the same spot…
“Alberto utilizes a red pigment from the achiote (annatto) tree and lampblack, diluted with water, which he applies with brushes improvised from bird feathers. The magic of these natural paints converts the uniform texture of the clay into an elegant combination of colors.” –from Great Masters of Mexican Folk Art; Formento Cultural Banamex, A.C., 1998
That is beautiful!!!
Thank you, DoRo! I agree! She is a stunning piece in my friends’ home. Jaguars are powerful mojo in Mesoamerican iconography. I used to know someone who owned live wild animals (not that I agree with it). The various wildcats all had very different personalities. Jaguars are their own thing–not really trainable, unpredictable, and full of magic and secrets. I have copious amounts of respect for them and would never want to make one angry.
They are beautiful animals, but I agree with you, it is much wiser to own such a great piece of art and be able to enjoy it without fear!!! :)