Dinosaur storage jar, William Andrew Pacheco

The artist is William Andrew Pacheco, born 1975 in the United States. The title of the work is Dinosaur Storage Jar, created in 2000 The work is made with earthenware, plastic, and slip.

Dinosaur Storage Jar is a black ceramic jar that stands about 19 inches tall and widens upward from its base to about 16 inches wide at the swell of its shoulder, about three-quarters of the way up. It narrows quickly toward the top, then flares slightly at the rim. Ivory-colored, stylized dinosaurs march across the black surface of the jar. Their stocky bodies and sinuous necks overlap. Some stand on all four legs but one stands on two legs, its tail sweeping back to overlap the other dinosaurs. The dinosaurs face both directions, their curved smiles resembling cartoon drawings.

Pacheco has been making vessels with dinosaur imagery for 15 years. His pueblo of Santo Domingo forbids depictions of humans and most animals, since they are considered sacred. Dinosaurs are exempt from those restrictions. This is a particularly large example of Pacheco’s vessels.

This kind of artwork is called “utilitarian,” which means it can be used in daily life, or it can mean that this object has a job to do other than to be looked at. A vessel like this one can be used to hold or carry something. What kinds of things do you think could go in this jar? Would it be heavy to carry? About the art This jar comes from the Pueblo of Santo Domingo, a place where Native American Kewa peoples live. People in that community do not show living people or animals in their art because they are considered sacred. Because dinosaurs are extinct, the community decided it was okay for this artist to paint them on his pottery. About the animal These dinosaurs look like sauropods, a group of dinosaurs that includes the Brontosaurus and Apatosaurus. The largest of these could have been almost 75 feet long, which is about the same distance from where you are standing now in front of the jar to the end of the gallery where a quilt is hanging!