Nicolás Ortíz--Renaissance Man

    An owl turns and looks inquisitively over his shoulder.  A javelina snarls, bearing his fangs.  A curiously colored tortoise pokes along, neck straining ahead of his shell with the effort of movement. A pair of rabbits—one all black, the other colored red and black—perch on their haunches with noses raised, sensing danger.  All these animals form a peaceful menagerie, sitting together on a table in a small home in the humblest of the barrios of Mata Ortíz.  They are the pets and creations of a magnificent sculptor and potter: Nicolás Ortíz.

    The visitors gasp and mutter in disbelief after being invited into the adobe house by his wife Patricia.  “Look how much he burnished that shell!” “Look at the action in that javelina!” “How did he do that?” 

    There’s a scraping of a chair from a small room off the kitchen.  A thump of feet and Nicolás emerges into the room.  He is as imposing as his pottery, standing about 6’7”.  But he has a warm smile, a deep mellow voice and a gracious personality.

    “Buenos días, how are you?” he says, displaying his partial bilingualism.  Unlike most of the potters, Nicolás speaks some English and likes to use it.  He walks with a slight unconscious stoop indoors, for most Mata homes have low overhead and there are always hanging light bulbs and ceiling fans to worry about.

    When I first saw his turtle, or tortuga, I told him it was the finest piece of pottery I had  ever seen come out of the village.  It was a mixture of two clays, white   and beige, and the colors swirled around the ceramic shell and over    the legs and head. Not only the top but also the underside of that shell glistened from the stone polishing.

    “I like to sculpt the wild creatures I see,” he says.  His inspiration comes from the jackrabbits and desert turtles of the valley and the owls and javelina of the Sierras. 

    As his fame spreads and more and more orders arrive via guests or, occasionally, the town fax machine, Nicolás has become an accountant of sorts.  Orders taken today will be ready for pick up (neither UPS nor DHL have made it to Mata Ortíz) in eight to nine months.  Everything is meticulously kept in a notebook—date of order, anticipated completion, name of buyer, description of piece desired and both amount of deposit paid and total price of the finished earthenware.

    “Sometimes I don’t like to take a deposit,” Nicolás laughs with a grin.  “Then when I am paid for the piece it seems I am not getting very much."

    This tall, unassuming man with the shaggy beard is also an artist of another sort.  He sings and plays several musical instruments, including the saxophone.  I asked him if he had his druthers, which would he rather do, make pottery or make music.  He thought for a moment and replied, “Both, half and half.”

    Nicolás Ortíz: sculptor, potter, musician, Renaissance man.

  Home   Magazine  Quezadas  Alfredo  Veloz    Bañuelos  Manolo 

Manuel Mora

© Copyright Michael Williams 2006. All Rights Reserved.

Last updated: February 24, 2006. Email Webmaster at thaimexico@gmail.com