MFA Thesis “Tó ałtaashchíín”

From the beginning, I always interpreted my desire to work with clay as a desire to be closer to my late grandparents. Although this origin is true, the more time I spend with clay, the more a subconscious driver becomes apparent. It was no longer about a nostalgic memory of my grandparents and my desire to understand their methodology, but it quickly became a time when I could nourish my relationship with my late father.

    As I reflect on our time spent together with clay, I reflect on our conversation about the materials and how we eventually felt our way through the natural world until vessels were brought into being. At the time our collective senses would influence each other toward a shared vision; unaware of it at the time, we were exchanging recipes. 

    “What happens is that the recipes act like stories that are told and retold in different ways depending on the storyteller or, in this case, the cook. Because they are family recipes, they are also communal. Communal storytelling has a way of correcting itself. The corrections are not seeking absolute truth, but communal truth.” - Enrique Salmon, Eating the landscape

    I realize now that the time I shared with my father was more than just sitting around a table working on pots. When we would pull over on the side of the road because we spotted clay, or our collective attentiveness around pots that were engulfed in flame, he was telling stories. These stories were of his time with his mother and of the communal recipe that had once been told to him.

    Now, as the next generation of potter, I inherit the role of storyteller. Whether it be to my liking or not, my additions to this story are permanent. A permanence that is embedded in the same clay that my family has always used.

    Tó ałtaashchíín is a collection of stories and conversations that took place between my father and I. This body of work comes into frame at a time when I feel most vulnerable during the loss of my father, and yet equally aware of the power that is induced by my own transition into fatherhood. 

“Tó ałtaashchíín, where every different drop, stream, and river comes together. It becomes a whole different entity of a different kind of water. It’s as though there are two life’s coming together” - Darrell Tso