Quezada, Olga

Olga Quezada de Ledezma learned how to pot from her neighbors, Angela Banuelos and Gerardo Cota. Then she taught her husband, Humberto Ledezma. Humberto then went back to Gerardo and enlisted his help in perfecting his new-found talent.

Humberto makes the pots, usually using the terra cota clay Mata Ortiz is famous for. Then he sands them smooth and eggshell thin. His rims vary from fluted to round to square to double-necked (think: wedding vase).

Olga does all the painting and signs the pots. She prefers to paint variations of the checkerboard pattern. She also often adds a series of thin blue lines that spiral from the top to the bottom of the piece, passing through the center of each red square.

Their work was featured at an exhibition at the University of New Mexico in 1995. Olga, Humberto and their children live in Barrio Iglesia in Mata Ortiz.