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Wolves Courting at Full Moon by Christine McHorse / American Art
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Wolves Courting at Full Moon

1988 Christine McHorse Born: Morenci, Arizona 1948 fired micaceous clay with piñon pitch 11 5/8 x 13 7/8 in. (29.5 x 35.2 cm) diam. Smithsonian American Art Museum Gift of Chuck and Jan Rosenak and museum purchase made possible by Ralph Cross Johnson 1997.124.161 Smithsonian American Art Museum
3rd Floor, Luce Foundation Center



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Wolves Courting at Full Moon



"Beauty and simplicity is the basis of my work in clay and silver. The shiny earth and metal provide means of expression through the oldest of crafts." Christine McHorse, Chuck and Jan Rosenak research material, 1990-1999, Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution


Christine McHorse uses sparkling mica clay from the mountains around Taos Pueblo in northern New Mexico. She breaks several Navajo traditions in her work by applying imagery to the clay and firing it in an electric kiln, but believes that she can make her "own traditions and taboos" (Chuck and Jan Rosenak, Museum of American Folk Art Encyclopedia, 1990). Animals are important in Native American culture, and in these pieces McHorse has incorporated the crow, symbol of the gateway to the supernatural, and the wolf, which Navajos regard as a teacher of wisdom.

For more information about this work visit the Luce Foundation Center.


Keywords

Animal - wolf

decorative arts - ceramic

folk art

clay

About Christine McHorse

Born: Morenci, Arizona 1948

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