The pale white clay of this jar suggests that it was fired in a kiln. When lightly struck with a finger, the high-pitched resonance confirms the use of a kiln, likely the kiln of Tom Polacca, Zella’s cousin.
Born in 1930, Zella is a daughter of Nellie (see Artist List”) and the mother of Mary C. Nez (Nampeyo) (2009-03). One source says she only made pottery between 1980 and 1990. Zella had one pot in the 1983 Adobe Gallery exhibit (1983:13, #57); at the time of its purchase jar 2009-16 was only the second pot I had seen by Zella.
Thirteen years after I bought pot 2009-16 and wrote the above comments, two other pots by Zella were offered on Ebay and one of them (2022-11) joined this collection. All four of these pots are small and quite nondescript.
