Rebecca Lucario, left, and Amanda Lucario at work on pottery during the live streaming of their afternoon show Tuesday at Andrea Fisher Fine Pottery, 100 W San Francisco in Santa Fe. Photo by Bonnie Gordon/ladailypost.com
Andrea Fisher Fine Pottery owner Andrea Fisher with her wares. Photo by Bonnie J. Gordon/ladailypost.com
By BONNIE J. GORDON
Los Alamos Daily Post
bjgordon@ladailypost.com
Editor’s note: “State of the Arts” is a new series about how New Mexico artists and other art professionals are coping with the global pandemic.
Andrea Fisher Fine Pottery has been a mainstay of the Santa Fe art scene for 27 years, 19 of them at its location at 100 W San Francisco St. Andrea Fisher was working at a local museum when she decided to start the gallery.
“I wanted to focus on one medium and do it really well,” Fisher said. “I loved the pottery best, so why not? I like retail and I love art and the gallery is the marriage of these two.”
Fisher looks for pots that speak to her. She features work from every Pueblo except Sandia.
“I’m committed to tradition,” she said. “The gallery features hand built, hand painted and mostly ground fired pottery. We consider our gallery to be an educational retail experience.”
Fisher is committed to paying reasonable prices to her artists and charging a reasonable price for her merchandise.
Fisher’s staff has years of museum and gallery service and everyone at the gallery is committed to the artists and their art. The gallery stands on years of relationships between the staff and the artists. The gallery welcomes visitor every day except Christmas, Thanksgiving and sometimes New Year’s Day.
“People except us to be open when they come from far away,” Fisher said.
All was well.
Then came 2020 and the pandemic.
Not only did COVID-19 cause entrance to the gallery to become by appointment only, Indian Market the height of the sales year for Native American potters, was canceled.
“Artists rely on Indian Market,” Fisher said. “It represents a huge piece of their income.”
Fisher continues to pay her 10 employees as though they are working fulltime. She continues buying from the potters and accepting consignments. What could they do to boost sales?
Then Fisher had a brainstorm—take the gallery experience online. Since Aug. 4, the gallery’s Youtube channel has been bringing potters at work to its audience through livestreaming. The 20 shows feature one or two artists, working on their pots in front of the camera and talking about their work. Each show is archived on YouTube in case someone misses the live feed, gets interrupted or wants to watch it again. The shows last about four hours and are highly addictive!
If you’ve ever wondered how those gorgeous pots were created, this is a golden opportunity to find out. It’s absolutely fascinating.
“It’s more fun than we could have imagined,” Fisher said. “We’re learning as we go. It’s all unscripted. After a while, it’s like sitting around my kitchen table.”
Fisher’s son Derek, her business partner since 2008, joined her in getting the equipment and they figured it all out by trial and error. Derek has been involved with the gallery since he designed the website as a high school project in 1998.
If the gallery dogs contribute a bark or two, it’s all part of the homey atmosphere.
“We want the audience and the potters to feel comfortable,” Fisher said. “It’s not a formal lecture. The main focus is selling the artists’ work, but the public is getting information they can’t get anywhere else. They can learn to appreciate how the pots are made—the time, the process and how precarious it all is.”
The audience can even comment or ask questions via chat during the livestream.
Mother and daughter Rebecca and Amanda Lucario were at the gallery Aug. 11, setting up for the show. The two would be showing off their painting skills.
Pottery making has been passed down for generations in their family. Rebecca learned from her grandmother and Amanda learned from her and from her aunts who also are potters. Though they both were exposed to making pottery from an early age, the patience to create works of art didn’t come until the women were around 20, they both said. Amanda’s daughter, age 3, is already painting pots and sold out at the last Indian Market before her mom did!
“It begins with collecting the clay,” Rebecca said. “It’s dangerous The clay mine caved in around 10 years ago and now we have to collect around the edges.”
The collectors have to walk or ride a horse to the site and haul back the heavy clay.
“All the paint is natural,” Rebecca said. “We use ground iron oxide for brown. For black, we use wild spinach.”
The famous white slip used as a base on many Acoma plates must be gathered and ground.
Human baby hair is used for some of the brushes. “My daughter’s going bald,” Amanda joked.
The family divides its time between homes at the base of mesa and homes 365 feet above, the original site of Acoma. There’s no running water or electricity, but Amanda’s daughter likes that home the best.
Amanda likes to combine several patterns in her pots, many of them ancient designs like her favorite, the checkerboard pattern that represents corn.
The intricately painted pots are meant as art pieces, but Acoma potters also make pots used as water vessels and cooking pots. These pots are smooth inside and rough outside and designed especially to be used.
“Don’t put water in your pots!” warned Fisher. “They aren’t waterproof and eventually, they’ll melt.”
Visit Andrea Fisher Fine Pottery on Youtube for the livestream and to view all the videos. Call the gallery at 505.986.1234 to set up an appointment to visit the gallery in person, or visit online at andreafisherpottery.com.
Pots created by Amanda Lucario for sale at Andrea Fisher Fine Pottery. Photo by Bonnie J. Gordon/ladailypost.com
Rebecca and Amanda Lucario pottery available at Andrea Fisher’s gallery. Photo by Bonnie J. Gordon/ladailypost.com