Cavan Gonzales

Tse-Whang (Eagle Tail) Cavan Gonzales is a sixth-generation Pueblo pottery artist and great-great-grandson of the renowned world-famous artist, Maria Martinez, distinctively known for pioneering her black-on-black pottery style.

The high gloss shine is created by polishing/burnishing the clay surface with river stones. The clay is red before firing and turns black with the smoke, a highly sought-after piece by pottery collectors. Cavan gathers his own clay twice a year from the hills of the San Ildefonso reservation.

This spring, he’ll collect “after the winds and before the rains,” just as his great-great-grandmother had practised. He takes the time to sift the earth at the collection site, and later mixes it with water and the volcanic ash he has collected, to perfect its consistency. The diverse colours of the earth provide different tones of slip and paint for the designs.

Cavan prefers to work in silence and solitude. It is a deeply meditative practice that requires a lot of presence and connection with the clay.

“The pot determines how long it needs. Sometimes it can take many months or as much as a year before it lets me know it is ready.”

Cavan and his family established the ‘Sunbeam Indian Arts Gallery’ located in San Ildefonso Pueblo in the Northern Rio Grande Valley of New Mexico. The gallery showcases traditional and contemporary Pueblo pottery, upholding the story of a six-generation family of makers and potters, guided by the inerasable legacy of their matriarch.