Nathan Youngblood & C. S. Tarpley

The New American Aesthetic
 

Long before they ever met, Nathan Youngblood and C. S. Tarpley were traveling
on parallel paths. They shared an aesthetic, a vision, even similarities in
their art, and they each strongly admired the other’s work. Many people,
including collectors, told the artists that they should consider a collaborative
project, and privately they each thought it was a good idea. Finally, their
mutual friend (Gini Inman) decided the two had to meet face to face. She
introduced them—and in a surge of creative synergy that shows no sign of
slowing, the parallel paths converged.

Tarpley is known for his luminous, copper-inlayed glass vessels, carved with
motifs drawn from ancient cultures around the world. Youngblood is a sixth
generation potter from a renowned family of Santa Clara potters. He has long
been acclaimed for his deeply carved, stone-polished vessels that combine
age-old methods with a contemporary sense of design and form. Both artists
hold themselves to extraordinarily high standards of quality and technical
mastery. They knew their collaborative efforts must achieve that same level
of excellence and beauty. And based on a first-hand look at their
prototypes, it appears that those standards have not only been met, but
surpassed.

With an initial series of 25 one-of-a-kind glass and copper vessels of
varying sizes (which will require the better part of a year to complete) the
pair employs Tarpley’s uncommon techniques and Youngblood’s exquisite Santa
Clara Pueblo designs. The artists admit that the combination exceeds even
their own expectations. “When I look at these finished pieces I think, yeah,
this collaboration was meant to be. I loved the first piece, and then each
succeeding piece has become my favorite, in turn.” Tarpley declares.
“Working with Nathan’s designs has actually reinvigorated my love of glass.”

And it must to be love, indeed, for an artist to invest as much time and
effort into a single piece as Tarpley does. Blowing the glass is the quick
part, he says. Though its speed belies the years of experience required to
produce subtly graceful shapes in glass that are uniformly thick enough to
be deeply carved. Tarpley has this to say about his blowing process, “Most
contemporary glass blowers have been trained in the Italian style (which
holds the ability to blow thin/delicate forms to be the true mark of a
maestro). But I came to the bench with a very different idea in mind. I had
no interest in those techniques because the look that I was striving to
achieve required a very thick piece of glass that could withstand an intense
carving process. Working with forms this thick can seem counter-intuitive
to glassblowers who are accustomed to blowing thin. The heats are different, the
timing is different, and it is easier to accidentally burn-out certain
colors.” It’s not just timing and technique that makes these pieces so difficult to create.

 The process is also physically taxing.  “Depending on just how thick I
go, one of my twelve inch vessels will weigh anywhere from five to ten times
as much as a similarly sized Italian-style vessel. It takes a lot of core-strength to whip

 these things around on a blowpipe and I wind up working my team a lot
harder than they expected. But I prefer the
solid heft of these vessels in my hands.  These pieces are very tactile and
beg to be touched, as well as viewed.” Rather than relying on ornamental
bits or an overly complex use of multiple colors, Tarpley places his focus on creating
voluptuous curves and smooth transitions between concave and convex surfaces.
This makes his forms more pleasing to the eye. “For me, it is the exploration of these
subtleties of form that mean the difference between a perceived failure, or, a
personal triumph. Simply put, some shapes are more viscerally satisfying to
me than others. In that respect, I believe that I have always approached the
idea of shape and form in much the same way that a potter does. For example,
before Nathan ever thinks of picking up a carving tool, he is focusing on these same  

subtleties of form. Even before they are carved, his clay vessels are already
incredible works of art. He has a solid grasp of simple, understated
elegance that I can really appreciate as a glass artist.”

Tarpley, who grew up in Santa Fe, spent the better part of a decade learning
to blow glass in Seattle before returning to New Mexico. Now, he routinely
travels back to a Seattle hotshop to undertake the glassblowing process. For
this project he has assembled a world-class team that includes people who
have worked with other renowned glass artists such as Dale Chihuly and Lino
Tagliapietra. Youngblood is learning to blow glass as well, and is becoming
increasingly involved in the multi-step process that follows. “I quickly
developed a deep appreciation of just how difficult the glassblowing process
is after putting my own hand to it.” Youngblood exclaims. “I remember
calling my wife and son from Seattle after my first day in the hotshop and
trying to describe this ‘dance’ that was spontaneously occurring between
these artists. Chris had met half of the people on the team just that
morning, but somehow they were able to communicate with almost imperceptible
nods of the head or quick glances toward the furnace, once the work began. Chris

would bark out a one-word command and everyone would move into place to execute some
vital task as though they had all spent weeks choreographing the event. Each

one of the people on the blow team was obviously highly experienced in the field. It
was an exhilarating thing to be a part of. The thing that made the greatest
impression on me, though, was the heat. It’s quite a different experience
from the heat of firing clay. We are taught by our mothers, from birth,  to
shy away from the heat of a hot stove or a cook-fire. But, in the world of
the glass studio, your goal is get right-up-close-and-personal with it. I felt
a little intimidated by it and hung back a bit on the first day. But, once you

get a feel for it, there is an almost masochistic thrill to seeing just how far you push
the envelope with this material. You want to see how close you get your hands

 to the hot glass without flinching. Frankly, I can’t wait to get back to
Seattle to try it again.” Smiling, Tarpley nods in agreement.

Back in a Santa Fe studio, the artists work on one piece at a time. First,
Tarpley covers the glass with a rubber stencil material, onto which
Youngblood draws his fluid, often intricate designs. “It may not sound as
exciting as the glassblowing process,” offers Tarpley, “but this is really
the step where the heart and soul of one of these pieces is truly born.”
Youngblood’s designs are based on ancient Pueblo cosmology and symbolism,
but also touch on primal elements of life that are central to every culture.
“Much of our design work is very universal,” Youngblood explains. “For me,
the specific vocabulary of images comes from Santa Clara Pueblo, but tribes
all over the world have similar symbolism.”  This sense of tapping into
deeply shared aspects of the human experience, no matter our cultural
heritage, is another way in which the artists see eye to eye.

Like many Americans today, both come from families with wildly multicultural
roots. For Tarpley the mix includes Choctaw, Chickasaw, Cherokee, and a
smattering of various other tribes from Texas and Oklahoma. His European
heritage is equally convoluted, being a mix German, Irish, Scottish, Dutch,
and sundry southern European nationalities. Youngblood is solidly Pueblo on
his mother’s side, while his paternal grandfather’s family came west in a
covered wagon. His more distant ancestry contains Dutch, Scottish, and
Irish. He can even trace his European ancestry back to an 11th century
English lord. Youngblood’s peripatetic childhood underscored a connection
with all people as well. Raised in a military family, he lived in such
diverse places as Holland, Kentucky, Massachusetts, and California before
returning to New Mexico to learn how to coil traditional pottery from his
Grandmother, Margaret Tafoya.

“Chris and I have had a chance to talk in depth about this,” Youngblood
reflects. “Although we both trace our ancestry back to the First Nations, we
like to think of ourselves as American Natives, rather than Native
Americans. But whatever box people try to put us in, we are American
Artists, first and foremost.” Still, by choosing to faithfully carry on the
age-old traditions handed down to him by his family, it is clear that Nathan
has firmly set his roots down in the soil of Santa Clara Pueblo. As such, his

imagery tells a story that reflects his own personal experience of
life on the pueblo. “As I am carving Nathan’s designs, I can’t help but pick
up on a hidden narrative within his work.”, says Tarpley. “The story I see
may not necessarily be the one Nathan had intended to tell, but that is the
beauty of art  - The meaning can change depending on the cultural context of
the beholder. These pieces are alive and they speak to people in the
universal tongue of beauty. I have plenty of time to contemplate these
pieces while they are in process and I never cease to be delighted at what I
find in them.”

That’s because once the design is drawn and the stencil is cut away where
the glass will be carved, Tarpley spends many days cutting deeply
but ever-so-gradually into the glass with a sandblasting tool. Next comes
the electroforming process, which fuses copper onto the glass. And this is
where the alchemy begins.  Because glass is non-conductive, the vessel must
be selectively coated with an expensive silver-based paint and covered with
dozens of conductive copper wires. The prep-time alone can take days. The
piece is then suspended in a chemical bath that also contains suspended
copper ingots. Over a period of several weeks—during which the chemical
solution must be constantly monitored and balanced—an electrical current
sweeps copper ions off of the suspended anodes and deposits them, layer by

 infinitesimally thin layer, onto the glass cathode. Perfected by Tarpley’s teacher

 and colleague (glass artist, Michael Glancy) in the 1970s, electroforming is so
time-consuming and tedious that only a vanishingly small handful of Glancy’s
students work with it in a serious way. In Tarpley’s own words, “The process
can be very unforgiving.”

While Tarpley’s vessels are extraordinary in and of themselves, his
partnership with the award-winning potter takes the work to a whole new
level within the realm of the American glass art movement. At least one
piece in the initial series is more than 31inches tall. It’s a size that’s
“insanely large” for a hand-blown glass vessel of that thickness, Tarpley
laughs. “It really is amazing how many steps are involved in completing just
one of these glass and metal pieces.” Youngblood continues, “You wouldn’t
think that glass could survive all of these different processes intact. It’s
such a demanding medium to work with.” Tarpley interjects, “But that is just
one more parallel that can be drawn between our work. Nathan has to jump
through just as many hoops to finish one of his stone-polished vessels.”
Youngblood summarizes, “Both of us have to work through many pain-staking
steps to realize our vision in our respective mediums. And we can’t rush
through any one part of the process without dearly paying for it later. So far, the
overall way in which we collaborate has been perfectly harmonious. That’s because,
as artists, we both have had to independently develop a deep sense of patience in
order to carry ourselves through to the point of creative realization. Whether you
are working with clay or molten fire, you have to get in touch with your
center in order to shut out the infinite distractions of a world bent on
instant gratification. You have to will yourself to truly live in the
moment. It’s not always an easy place to find and it sometimes comes at a
price.”

Apparently it is a price that both artists are willing to pay, because this
is not likely to be the last time we see these two names together in print.
After the initial collection is publicly introduced by Kiva Fine Art during
the 2006 Santa Fe Indian Market, the pair will begin a second series. “A lot
of times artistic collaboration is a one-shot deal,” Youngblood observes.
“But between the two of us, we probably have enough ideas to keep us going
for another fifteen years.”

 
The Tarpley/Youngblood creations are represented by Kiva Fine Art, at El
Centro de Santa Fe, 102 E. Water Street. Hours: 9:30–5:30 daily. (505) 820-7413

Art Photography (Transparencies)

By Mark Nohl

Action Photography (Digital)

By Roger Schreiber

More images will become available as

the collaboration progresses.

For more information, contact:

Paula McDonald

Gallery: (505) 820-7413

Cell: (505) 690-6325

Email: info@kivaindianart.com