Taurina Baca

Mata Ortiz

Taurina Baca learned to make pots directly from Juan Quezada, probably around 1973-4. She was his first student from outside his family. She prefers to make large ollas in white, yellow or mixed clays, then paint them with top-to-bottom swirling Paquimé graphics with large open spaces between.

Spencer MacCallum, the trader who first brought Mata Ortiz pottery to the world stage, took Taurina on several trips outside Mexico in the early 1980s. On those trips she was exposed to the works of Native American potters like Blue Corn, Lucy Lewis, Maria Martinez, Jody Folwell and Priscilla Namingha Nampeyo.

In 1998 Taurina earned the Fiorst Place ribbon in the "all colored pots except black-and-white" category at a show at the Museo de las Culturas del Norte in Casas Grandes, Mexico. She is still one of Juan Quezada's better-known students and usually can't produce enough pottery to satisfy the collectors who come to her door.