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For ages humans have believed that animals possess magical, transformative powers and have used their images in storytelling and art..

“There’s an entire ceramic history of vessels of animals”, said artist Gretchen Ewert.  “Actually there is a whole history of different cultures using animals to decorate their vessels – everything from Greek to Thracian to MesoAmerican to the Arab world.  Everybody has somehow included animals in their artwork because they are believed to hold magical powers.”

Ewert is fascinated by animals.  “They tend to live in the moment, and are absolutely present”, she says. “There’s texture, there’s movement and there are different kinds of animals suggesting different emotional possibilities. There are so many different kinds of animals that I can move from one to the other, and I can somehow adapt them to being part of my universe.”

Ewert, a ceramic artist and painter lives outside of Taos, New Mexico in the small community of Arroyo Hondo.  Considered by many artists to be the “diva” of ceramics in the Southwest, Ewert has developed her own expressive language, speaking about cultural diversity and the natural world through her use of animal imagery.  Ewert draws on both ancient and classical works from all cultures, combining three dimensional animal and human forms. 

Gretchen grew up in Mora, in northern New Mexico only a few hours from where she now lives.  She studied printmaking and ceramics at the Rhode Island School of Design and at the Massachusetts College of Art.  Much of her inspiration has come from her extensive travels throughout the world, including journeys through West Africa, Europe, Costa Rica, India, Australia and Vietnam.  

 Adapted in part from “Animal Moves”, Lynn Cline, The New Mexican, Sept. 2002