Ortiz, Nicolas

Nicolas Ortiz Estrada was a sculptor first and a painter second. He learned the basics of the process from Macario, his younger brother. He also hung around with the guys at Felix Ortiz’ house in Mata Ortiz in the late 1970s, sharing techniques and pointers.

Nicolas made effigy pots that are not just realistic in form but beautifully painted, too. His work was featured in an exhibit at the University of New Mexico Museum of Art in 1995. In that show he had a rabbit figure made of polished buff clay. Within a few years he had made hundreds of similar rabbit figures trying to satisfy the demand. There came a day when he said he was tired of dreaming about making rabbits every night, in spite of the economic opportunity they gave him. Then he branched into making other zoomorphic effigies, like javelina, eagles, snakes, black rabbits, mice and even a desert tortoise or two.

In 2017 Nicolas earned a Second Place prize for one of his figurative pieces at the annual Concurso Ceramica de Mata Ortiz.