LAGUNA WEDDING VASE

Kaa Ooa Dinn Naa (Myron Sarracino)-2019
Polychrome Earth Tone Pigments

Myron is a renowned Laguna Pueblo potter who lives in the Tularosa foothills of the Sacramento Mountains in New Mexico. As a teenager, he began creating hand-coiled, traditional pottery under the guidance of his grandparents, Thelma and Sandy Sarracino and his mentor, the renowned Laguna potter Gladys Paquin.
Myron’s pottery is thin walled with crisp, eye-catching painted designs. He uses clay from the canyons surrounding his home and pigments drawn from local mineral pools. His pieces typically feature a break in the line of paint surrounding their openings, which represents the doorway between the piece’s spirit and its new home. 
Myron draws inspiration from old pottery shards gathered in Tularosa, while also using crushed shards from this same pottery to instill that spirit into his pots and bring that spirit to new life.  In this way, he bridges the gap between old and new, reviving ancient patterns in his own unique style. His skillful blending of ancient and contemporary designs can be found in both private and public collections across the country.
The polychrome piece in our collection is a traditional wedding vase, an ancient vessel still used in traditional Pueblo wedding ceremonies. Each spout of the vessel represents one of those to be wed. The looped handle represents the unity achieved with marriage. The space created within the loop represents the circle of life. In the traditional ceremony, the couple drink nectar (prepared by the medicine man) from the spouts to represent the blending of their lives. The wedding vase in our collection is rendered in classic earth tones with complex black and beige geometric patterning.