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August 27, 2010

Dorothy Torivio’s Avant-Garde Seed Jars

DorothyT-490

top: Black-on-white eyedazzler seed jar, c. 2000 (Photo via: Vassar.edu); lower photo from eBay

Another type of helical container: Dorothy Torivio’s “eye dazzler” seed jars.

Dorothy’s idea for this design came from a pottery shard she found on the Acoma reservation. Originally, she says, it was a series of simple squares, half white, half black, so she called this idea the “Day and Night” pattern. In this interpretation, the square has become a rectangle, actually a parallelogram, and executed in one of her famous spirals. Her trademark is executing the same number of geometric shapes, regardless of the variance in circumference.

Canyon Art

TopViewsPhoto on right via: Tribal Expressions

Although “eye dazzler” was originally used as a derogatory term by 19th Century collectors of Navajo rugs—(who preferred the earlier, subtler colors to the bright colors that later became available due to railroads)—Torivio’s work (like early “Op Art”) is mostly black and white. Dazzling in pattern, but ascetic and restrained in color. (See also: The Bridget Riley Look)

It is impossible to analyze the mathematical precision of these designs, which she works out in her mind and puts directly on the pot. She looks at a pot, visually divides it in half, then in quarters, then eighths, sixteenths, and more, and keeps dividing until there is no room on the surface. After the mental gymnastics, she begins to paint the pot…

…One day Dorothy was having an exhibition of her pottery in his gallery, at which she was being honored. A man approached her saying that he was a mathematics professor, and he had been trying for a long time to figure out on his computer how she did the designs until he finally arrived at the solution. Whereupon Dorothy laughed, pointed her finger to her brow, and said, “My brain is my computer.”

–Susan Peterson, Women Artists of the American West

(More Torivio seed jars, after the fold…)


Ebay-1

A miniature Dorothy Torivio seed jar (2 1/2" tall x 2 1/2") for sale now on eBay (“Buy it now” price = $237)

Just as she varies the size of her patterning according to circumference, she also varies the sizes of the seed jars, themselves. Some are large and some are quite miniature.

Dorothy specializes in Acoma hand coiled abstract pottery. She got the idea one day, back in 1982, to paint a design and repeat it over and over again on the shape of the pot. Dorothy basically combines the traditional pottery with her own penchant for the kinetic image, and thus creates an eye catching swirl design that contains both radiating and spiral motion.

AncientNations.com

And as with Bridget Riley and Op Art, in general, the kinetic visual effects are seen as a double edged sword. Attractive, but dizzying.

People have asked Dorothy whether she was immune to the vibrations of her own pots while hand painting them—she candidly replies, “Oh no! They drive me CRAZY!”

NativePots.com

Dorothy Torivio Group

Randy Ludacer
Beach Packaging Design

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