PBS Short Film Festival

- [Narrator] Trying to contribute to something that is so old, you know a tradition that is thousands of years old if I have something little to contribute to that.

I mean, that is just a very amazing thing if you think about it, you know?

I was born and raised in Mexico City.

I went to school in Mexico City and then I moved to Huntsville in 1985 and I I guess you can talk 20 people who work with clay.

And it just seems like he just grabs it.

You know?

It's just such a material that is just amazing when you are working with it.

It is so soft.

And then the transformation when it's fire, you know and just become forever.

So that was always a enchanting thing for me.

But besides that it was a connection that I was keeping with Mexico.

You know, as far as I was making my pots I was okay, you know, I'm far away, but here I have my clay so I can survive.

Pretty much shape my, my my pots on the potter's wheel.

And it is wonderful.

I love watching people throw and I love throwing, you know it's a really meditative way of shaping something.

You know it was not you so much the wheel that hooked me after years.

But like I say, you know the process of getting something soft and fragile and turning into something that is gonna last for years that was really, really appealing.

And for what I'm really known for is using the different color clays.

I'm really attracted to the earth.

The color of the clay, the natural color, the better.

You know, it is just really incredible.

Clays just really amazing.

You know, I have 40 years, 40 plus years doing this and I feel as exciting today as I did 40 years ago.

You know, it just, you cannot get enough of it.

All these stages are really amazing.

I mean, the process is so immense that there's always gonna be a new technique to try a new a new material to try, you know, a new tool.

So there is always something new coming along.

Yeah.

The grounding part of it and the joy of it is in the making.

You know, once the pot is done, it's a nice pot but that becomes some the pot, you know.

But the process is what is really what it moves something in me, you know?

And I guess it's the same with a lot of artists, you know the process is what it's all about.

It's, it's good to experiment and to play but I don't like so much the play part of it.

I mean, experiment, have fun with it, but have discipline.

You know, you wanna get to do something that you are satisfied with it.

You have to have discipline.

It doesn't have to be a very precise part.

It could be a very organic piece, but you get to that with discipline, you know, keeping on with it.

You know, patience is so important of things.

Made by hand.

You cannot just throw things together.

You have to take your time.

And we were taught like that in Mexico.

You need time to just be with yourself, time to be creative and that really fits your soul, you know?

And you have to take care of that.

You have to do that because you know if you are not taking care of your own spirit you are lost, I think.

Or I know I will be lost.