And it's the story of a financial consultant who became a peddler of pots and a connoisseur of cow manure. It's the story of a hungry, dusty village that learned how to sell its dirt. It's the story of a poor woodcutter who transformed himself into one of the most famous artists in Mexico. A signature has been scratched into the bottom: Juan Quezada. But this double fistful of clay may sell for a thousand times that sum. An ordinary laborer makes $6 a day in the village of Mata Ortiz, Chihuahua, where the pot was formed. Now, polished smoother than eggshell and nearly as thin, it is exquisite to the touch as well as the eye. Is it an abstract pattern - arcs, triangles, zigzags and quadrilaterals? Or does it portray wings, fangs and galaxies? Once, this luminous globe was a mud clod in a Mexican gully.
He rotates it slowly, displaying an intricate design executed in fine lines of red and black paint. Between his palms Walt Parks cradles a white clay pot about the size of an ostrich egg.
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