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| A social-distanced meeting |
Dear Bookclub,
Gloriously released into the cultivated heaven on Oak Creek Trail, that is Val's domain, we leisurely nibbled sack lunches, dissolved meringue cookies on our tongues, and chatted away hours. "The Wives of Los Alamos" set us in many directions, imagining life in a secret setting while husbands, (and some women), created an atomic bomb. Feeling frustrated by TaraShea Nesbit's narrative approach that muddled individuality, we became accustomed to the writing and found the journey ultimately imaginatively informative. Reading, that provokes new thought or as I realize, provokes endless googling, remains memorable as an entrance into an historic event, a foreign environment, a different mindset. "Wives" won in that arena.
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| Aerial view of Los Alamos National Laboratory, "1995 aerial TA-3 south to north" |
So much more available through digging online... have at it!
Intrigued by the black pottery plates 'the help' made and the women collected, (although 'the help' had regular dishes in their own homes), I discovered Maria Martinez, world renowned potter:
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| Photo by Susan Peterson, courtesy of the Heard Museum, Phoenix, AZ, USA, © Susan Peterson |
From the website (click below), the description:
"Of Tewa heritage of the San Ildefonso Pueblo in the Rio Grande Valley of
New Mexico, Maria Martinez became world-renowned for her black-on-black
pottery.
Learning to make pots as a child from her aunt, Tia Nicolasa, and beginning with clay dishes she made for her playhouse, Maria was known as a potter among her peers. In 1908, Dr. Edgar Hewett, New Mexico archaeologist and director of the Laboratory of Anthropology in Santa Fe, had excavated some 17th century black pottery shards and, seeking to revive this type of pottery, Hewett was led to Maria. Through trial and error, Maria rediscovered the art of making black pottery. She found that smothering a cool fire with dried cow manure trapped the smoke, and that by using a special type of paint on top of a burnished surface, in combination with trapping the smoke and the low temperature of the fire resulted in turning a red-clay-pot black."
Learning to make pots as a child from her aunt, Tia Nicolasa, and beginning with clay dishes she made for her playhouse, Maria was known as a potter among her peers. In 1908, Dr. Edgar Hewett, New Mexico archaeologist and director of the Laboratory of Anthropology in Santa Fe, had excavated some 17th century black pottery shards and, seeking to revive this type of pottery, Hewett was led to Maria. Through trial and error, Maria rediscovered the art of making black pottery. She found that smothering a cool fire with dried cow manure trapped the smoke, and that by using a special type of paint on top of a burnished surface, in combination with trapping the smoke and the low temperature of the fire resulted in turning a red-clay-pot black."
Val's suggestions for an upcoming read:
"The Tangled Tree" David Quammen *chosen
"The Shape of Family" Shilpi Somaya Gowda
"What you Have Heard is True" Carolyn Forché
Up next:
Studious reading,
LK
PS
Matching game:
A) J. Robert Oppenheimer
B) Billy Collins
C) Bruce Holsinger
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| #1 |
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| #2 |
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| #3 |
PPS
In case you forget:
this is also very good:
PPPS
#1 - C
#2 - A
#3 - B
