A Fusion of Traditional and Personal Dine’ Making | Jared Tso | Episode 1037

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Jared Tso | Episode 1037

Jared Tso is a fourth generation Dine’ potter and a grandson of famous Navajo potter Faye Tso. Jared currently resides in Nahata Dziil, Arizona and completed his MFA at the University of New Mexico in 2021. Not only does Jared make pots, he also has an undergraduate degree in Electrical Engineering. Since transferring to full time artist, Jared has won the prestigious “Tony Da Innovation Award” (2022) at the Santa Fe Indian Market and “Best of Pottery” at the Heard Market (2023). In 2022 Jared was featured as a “Dwell 24”, a group of rising stars in the world of design. Jared’s pots are coil built, stone polished, and fired traditionally.

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Who would you like to overlap your work with? 

Right now I want my work to overlap with my Uncle Irvin. I want to make pots with him because I have memories of him making pots and he recently started making pots and we’ve been trying to find time to do that.

How would you define your story?

My story in relation to clay?

Yes. 

I think I would describe it with it was a subconscious effort to have a better relationship with my dad. I wrote about it a lot in my thesis show. Like I fell in love with clay as a way to nurture a relationship with my dad. Because he bonded over it, we bonded over it and it brought us a lot closer.

I asked you earlier where you feel like clay is taking you and you mentioned freedom. What is freedom for you?

Making work that I don’t limit myself with based off of how it might be perceived. And that takes a lot of vulnerability and a lot of confidence.

How do you honor both your community tradition and your personal expression?

I separate them. Like the work that I make for the art world or a gallery, for my business, I make very different work compared to my interactions with my community. For example, I get requested to make pots for ceremonial use for my community but the price I sell work in galleries does not make sense to be the same for someone who needs the ceremony done. I have come up with a policy that I do not charge for money, I do trades. It’s great if you are another artist. Or one of the best trades this year is someone stocked my freezer with some elk meat.

Why do you suppose there is a such a large division between “high art” and “low art” ? Or fine art and craft?

You know, I think it came out of a kind of European perspective of status. Fine art coming out of Europe was stagnant, it sat on a wall, you displayed it in your home, it was a way to show the values that you hold as a society. Whereas coming a experiencing the rest of the world and seeing work that was functionable, that wasn’t about status, it was about your intimate daily life, and labeled as a lower case a or folk art.

If you are compared to someone, who would you want to be compared to?

I think my answer for the current stage of my life would be my dad. I think growing up we always hit a phase where, you know we have a hard time with our parents, and whether it’s in music or literature people always try to express the concept that we become our parents. I fought that a lot growing up when I would see a mannerism or a phrase or something I did that was verbatim my dad. And now reflecting on his life and my relationship with him, he was not a perfect person but I sure am proud of the step up he gave me.

Book

This Wound is a World by Billy-Ray Belcourt 

Contact

jaredtso.com

Instagram: @jaredtsopottery