A placard inside the museum of Mission San Juan says that women once made pottery there, among other sustenance activities of 18th-century mission residents.
Each Sunday through Nov. 19, ceramic artist Michelle Hernandez will revive that ancient tradition for any member of the public curious to learn about working with clay.
As artist-in-residence at San Antonio Missions National Historical Park, Hernandez will occupy the historic Tufa House on the mission property across the yard from the white-walled church. Each Sunday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., she will open the doors to the public and offer demonstrations using her pottery wheel.
After seeing the museum placard referring to her foremothers, Hernandez said “Women make pottery here again now. It’s cool. It’s exciting”
Acequia madre, tierra padre
Wandering the extensive mission grounds in preparation for her residency, Hernandez took inspiration from the acequia that still brings fresh water to the active farm fields to the south. The acequia madre is the main channel running just behind the Tufa House, providing a site of contemplation for the artist, who crafted a standalone clay sculpture echoing the winding path of the water channel.
Hernandez saw the acequia madre as a matriarchal element and invented the complementary concept of the tierra padre. “So we have the father, the mother, the land, the water,” as a guiding principle for her residency, she said.
She will also offer two free themed workshops for those interested in using the “hand-building” method of ceramic work, with no pottery wheel involved, only hands and clay working tools.
For the first workshop on Sept. 30, inspiration will be drawn from a sign near the acequia and overlooking the farm fields detailing crops once grown by mission residents: corn, beans, squash, sweet potatoes, sugar cane, chilies and tobacco. Hernandez will teach workshop attendees how to replicate those crops in clay.
The second workshop on Nov. 4 will take water as its source, with Hernandez teaching attendees how to make water bells, objects dipped in water then used to water plants.
Hernandez regularly teaches classes through Meechi Ceramics, her Southside claymaking business. She said from experience working with students, she knows how large a role intuition plays in the process, and whoever attends her workshops will be free to follow their momentary inspirations.
Connecting with the park
PT Lathrop, the park’s chief of interpretation and education, said “the spirit of the artist-in-residence program is to help visitors really connect with the park. … We have really rich history and we’re really proud to share that.”
While the park offers informational tours, details on the history of the mission through its museum and other ways to explore Mission San Juan, having Hernandez on site will be “a way to help people connect that history through a more tangible, more visceral and more artistic expression,” Lathrop said.
Each U.S. National Park maintains its own artist-in-residence program. San Antonio Missions National Historical Park has partnered with nonprofit organization Mission Heritage Partners since 2017 to offer the program, selecting artists including Cruz Ortiz, Michael Nye and Sabra Booth.
Hernandez was selected from a pool of 53 applicants, Lathrop said, and stood out in part because of her longstanding connection to the mission neighborhood and because ceramics is “a medium that is so universally approachable, [and] so tangible.”
More information on the workshops can be found on San Antonio Missions National Historical Park’s social media channels, including Instagram and Facebook. Hernandez will open her Tufa House studio each Sunday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., and admission is free to Mission San Juan.
