Dolores Porras
 
The making of pottery among indigenous people is always a family affair, and Dolores Porras, with her family, has been creating pots for over 60 years. She lives in the village of Atzompa, Oaxaca, and when she was young, she worked with the traditional green glazes of the village as well as producing clay "muņecas," or figures of women, as the chief assistant for the famous Teodora Blanco, who was herself a pioneer--taking Atzompa pottery from its previously strict utilitarian usage into an art form in which she expressed her creativity and sense of humor.

In an attempt to pull their family out of poverty, Dolores and her husband began to travel to the weekly market in the city of Oaxaca to sell their own work. One day, in a twist of good fate, Dolores went to an artist's studio in the city of Oaxaca to deliver an order. When Dolores saw the artists working in bright colors, she told her husband that they must figure out how to add colors to the otherwise just green Atzompa pottery. In the early-1980's, she began experimenting with glazes and moved away from the typical green glazes that were then used in the area. She developed a translucent white glaze that makes her pieces almost iridescent, and she uses it as a background color behind details that are painted in bright rusts, cobalt blues, deep greens, and yellows. Dolores hand-constructs each piece that she does and often embellishes them with raised stripes, mermaids, flowers and iguanas and then glazes them with her distinctive glazes.

As word of her extraordinary talent spread, Dolores began doing demonstration workshops in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and on one such trip, was introduced to a lead-free glazing process, which she immediately adopted. Always the most generous of spirits, Dolores teaches other potters in the US her technique and is still one of the few Mexican potters to be producing pottery that is lead-free.

Dolores' husband died just a few years ago and since then, her production was curtailed by her grief and her own failing health. Although there have been many attempts by others in the village to copy her work, it is distinguished not only by the translucent glaze, but by the inimitable Picasso-like figures that she paints or builds on the the surface of the pieces. Her mermaids, iguanas, fish, turtles and snakes enchant the viewer, and her pieces have been in high demand by collectors and institutions since the 1980's. In addition to being able to boast being the first of this now-famous artist's customers, El Interior has been fortunate to have had Dolores come and give a personal demonstration at the store, as well as acquire some of her best work.
 
   

Dolores Porras 1

 Muņeca
16" H
$288
SOLD
   
   

Dolores Porras 2

 Muņeca
14" H
$288
SOLD
   
   

Dolores Porras 3

  

Medium La Sirena Platter
11.5" diameter
$72

(larger version also available)
 
 

Dolores Porras 4

 Medium Pottery Crosses
7-8" H
$12.50 - $16.00

(larger version available @ 8" H, tiny version also available @4" H)
 
 

Delores Porras 5

 Tall La Sirena Vase
14" H
$86
 
 

Dolores Porras 6

 Medium-large Iguana & Calla Lilies Pot
17" H
$350
 
 

Dolores Porras 7

 Medium Iguana Pot
17" H
$104
 
 

Dolores Porras 9

 Medium-Tall Iguana Pot
18" H
$104
 
 

Dolores Porras 10

 Large La Sirena Pot
22" H
$375
 
 

Dolores Porras 12

 La Sirena Pottery
6" H & 8" diameter
$48
SOLD
 
 

Dolores Porras 13

 Large Pot with Variety of Images
18" H
$225
 
 

Dolores Porras 9

 Medium-Small Floral Pot
12" H
$132
 
 

El Interior
1009 West Lynn
Austin, TX  78703
p. (512) 474-8680
info@elinterior.com
www.elinterior.com