Guadalupe Gallegos

Mata Ortiz

Guadalupe Gallegos Garcia began his pottery career in 1992 at the ripe old age of 15. By then he'd spent several years hanging out in the Quezada household in Barrio Iglesia and had seen enough and was inspired enough to learn the art himself. Then he started hanging out with his uncle Hector Gallegos and aunt Graciela Martinez and they helped to hone his skills further.

Guadalupe often paints his designs in rich colors. He's also experimented with building pots with extra thick walls, then carving local scenes into them. He's also been known to cover a pot entirely with a red slip, then scratch away the red to reveal the white clay beneath. Sometimes he does this to create a mottled background on which he paints modern interpretations of ancient fish, ants, birds or lizard designs.