Rose B. Simpson

Rose B. Simpson

Born into a family of Tewa potters and sculptors, Rose Simpson (Santa Clara Pueblo) grew up with clay. So while she likes to work in a variety of media—from dance and writing to metal and clay—“clay is the most important to me,” she says. “Clay is the most grounding and the most honest. It is the most integral relationship because it doesn’t feel forced because it was inherited.” Her two ceramic figures sitting inside and outside of twine and reed baskets, or “pods,” are rough, created in one session rather than perfected over time. Simpson says she sometimes works in this “slap slab” technique so that she cannot go back and make a piece “acceptable.” She prefers to reflect the unscripted reality of moments in life. When looking at the pensive figures, their internal struggles are apparent, a reflection of Simpson’s own feelings when she created them. She says her works are “all about emotional growth and trying to identify what the issues are so we can heal from them. Part of that is not being in denial of our honest emotional spaces.” Photo by Minesh Bacrania