When Parallel Universes Collide

By Rebekah Powers | July 2024

Nathan Youngblood reigns supreme in the modern world of Pueblo Pottery. He was given a “life with the clay” from his grandparents Margaret and Alcario Tafoya, as well as his mother, Mela Youngblood, all leaders of the Santa Clara Pueblo renaissance. His upbringing was steeped in traditions, stories and symbols of his rich cultural inheritance. And then there is C.S. Tarpley, once referred to as “a wild child from Santa Fe” who found the medium of blowing glass, and became the precocious new artist adept in a very difficult process in glass art: electroformed blown glass. The intersection of these two artists from wholly different but parallel universes has resulted in a stunning new interpretation of Native American iconography and aesthetics.

Blown Blue Glass and Electroformed Copper Vessel by Chris S. Tarpley & Nathan Youngblood, 16″ x 9.5″

Chimayo Trading is showing an exquisite piece by these two artists that fuses azure glass with precisely carved bronze designs from tradition, Mother Earth, and beyond. This vessel gleams in the negative spaces with otherworldly blue light and life. Youngblood’s symbols represent clouds, mountains and abstractions of the “Walking Bear” that led the tribe to water during a drought, carrying the lore of Santa Clara. Chris Tarpley elaborates on it by fusing the blown glass vessel with many layers of electro formed copper, processed and finished, taking hundreds of hours. Their two signatures undulate in blown blue glass and electroformed copper on the bottom of the finished work.

The mesmerizing aspect of this version of a Santa Clara traditional pot is the transparency of the negative spaces leading into a depth of water, cosmos or fantasy. Together Tarpley and Youngblood combine like forces of nature to create art with the intensity, power and unpredictability of lightning. Experience the unexpected when parallel universes collide, at Chimayo Trading.

Blue Glass and Bronze Olla by Chris S. Tarpley, 8.75″ x 14″

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Ranchos de Taos, NM 87557

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