Growing up in Santa Clara Pueblo, in a family whose connection to clay goes back generations, pottery has always been an important part of Autumn Borts-Medlock’s life. She began working with clay at an early age under the guidance of her mother and grandmother in the ancient Pueblo technique of coil-building. The lessons she learned working alongside them, sculpting clay they gathered and processed themselves and drawing from the spiritual symbolism and nature-oriented aesthetics of Tewa culture, solidified Borts-Medlock’s connection to clay and gave her the skills to move into her own work. Today Borts-Medlock continues the traditions instilled in her by her mother and grandmother and says, “They remain among my strongest influences even now.”

Although she no longer lives in the Pueblo, she says that her connection to the Tewa people and culture is sustained by “the clay itself” and that her work is defined “more by cultural legacy than by place, more by experience than by genealogy. It becomes part of the larger collective memory of heritage.” The artist has won numerous awards at Santa Fe Indian Market, and her work is in the permanent collections of the Denver Art Museum and Heard Museum, among others.

autumnborts-medlock.com

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