Arizona Republic from Phoenix, Arizona • Page 27

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27 1 -XI 23 tifmichvaol.com Internet) 'NT 9 4 yil .1111. .11 mi I i w- I Mary Fernald recalls her study of the art of Maricopa pottery and her friendship with one of the artisans in Dirt for Making Things. John SamoraThe Arizona Republic the making Hstory in Art of Maricopa pottery lives on in chronicle of craftswomen -1 I' i By Anne Stephenson Arizona Republic Correspondent History repeats itself, Joseph Conrad wrote, but an art that is allowed to die is lost forever, "as utterly gone out of the world as the song of a destroyed wild bird." This is the story of a few persistent women and an art that is clinging to life. It began on a sunny September day 25 years ago when Mary Fernald drove south out of Phoenix to the Maricopa Indian settlement west of Laveen in search of a potter named Ida Redbird. Redbird was a striking woman even in old age.

She was working outside her house when Fernald offered to pay for lessons, but Redbird shook her head. She was old. Her eyes were failing, and she had arthritis. "Go see Mabel," she said gently, pointing west down Baseline Road. "Go see Mabel Sunn." Fernald was disappointed, but soon discovered how essential her meeting with Redbird had been.

It was only Redbird's quiet urging that persuaded another potter to cooperate. "Mabel did not want to take me on," Fernald says today. "She was concerned about me writing stories or articles, concerned that she might be exploited. That's why all these years, as long as Mabel was alive, I didn't feel that I could write about it. I didn't want to violate her trust.

"That was more than 20 years ago. I've come to the conclusion that it should be in print. It's part of the history down there. As I worked on my thesis, I kept thinking that if I could learn every step and write it down, someone would be able to make this pottery just by reading it. I wondered if anything happened to these women, was their knowledge just going to die?" When Fernald began her thesis, there were about 10 women making Maricopa pottery.

Today, there are only about four active potters. Now, Mary Fernald and her friend, Janet Stoeppelmann, have written a book, Dirt for Making Things (Northland, about Fernald's apprenticeship with Mabel Sunn and the process of making Maricopa pottery. "Over the years Mary told me bits and pieces about Ida and See BOOK, page D5 i the car pulled up, and she listened politely as Fernald, a graduate student in anthropology at Arizona State University, asked her to teach her to make pots. Maricopa pottery polychrome or shiny red with black designs, made by shaping clay with wooden paddles was the subject of Fernald's thesis, a project suggested by no less than Richard Conn, then director of the Heard Museum. There was almost nothing written about Maricopa pottery, he had told her.

Her thesis could fill the gap. Fernald discovered that if she wanted to learn about pots, Redbird was the woman to see. A master potter, Redbird had played an important role in a revival of Maricopa pottery during the late 1930s and was still making bowls and jars at her home in the desert. Gracious, intelligent and at ease with non-Indians, she had become a leader among women still practicing the craft. BILL GOODYKOONTZ Short Takes Columnist Bad Karma may put you on good path There's just something about shoes.

I can't think of anything that changes the way you feel about yourself, your self-perception even your mood faster than changing shoes. Unless it's that fourth beer Put on a pair of sandals and you want to hit the beach. Or at least sit out back with a cool drink and a bottle of suntan lotion. Ah. Nice.

Relaxing. Switch to a pair of expensive running shoes, though, and you are transformed. All of a sudden you feci like bolting from the house and breaking a sweat. It doesn't mean you will actually do this. Just that you will feel like it.

"Certainly the performance athletic shoes are designed to do activity in," said Eric Alt, manager of Just For Feet. In case you couldn't tell, it's a shoe store (what, you thought toe "Obviously, you are not going to sit on your sofa with a high-performance athletic shoe on." You would hope not. But the world is full of people who wear those Ironman Triathlon watches, when the only three activities that interest them are eating chocolate, strawberry and vanilla ice cream. Fashion first But Alt figures shoes don't lie. "I can get a good read on a person's personality by looking at their shoes," he said.

"First of all, you get a frame of reference for a person's income, their lifestyle. A lot of people who are into shoes will have to have the latest and best shoe out. "It's a fashion statement for some people. 'I've got to have the latest and best out there, and I have to show everyone I have I've run across this shoes-make-the-man phenomenon myself. When I moved to Arizona, I already owned a pair of cowboy boots.

Not just any boots, mind you I'm talking about pointy-toed leather numbers with red flames shooting up the sides. Steel toe tips, too. And I can tell you that, from the looks of some of tfie real cowboys I've run across out here, these boots make a certain statement. That statement, basically, is: "You, boy, are a jackass." And they don't even have to use words to get the point across. The rolling of the eyes and the shaking of the heads do the trick.

The boots now have been relegated to the back of the closet, making only the annual appearance as part of my Official Christmas Party Outfit, along with a green blazer, bright red pants and a red-and-green tie. (You have to down a few glasses of eggnog to appreciate this outfit fully.) Bargain basement Of course, I've also had shoes that defied any sort of category, which is good because if no one knows what they're supposed to be used for, no one can make fun of you for not doing whatever it is well. For instance, I was wandering around a mall one day and came across a pair of Nikes that had a sign that blared: "WERE $140. NOW The only trouble was, it Was impossible to tell what you were supposed to wear them for. Light hiking? Basketball? Polo? It was a clearance sale and there were no boxes or any information, so I asked a clerk, whose response was simply this: "Who gives a damn? THEY'RE ONLY $40!" Sold.

And they worked ouf just perfect for wearing to movies and whatnot. Then there was the pair of shoes I found at'one of those airplane-hangar-size athletic warehouses. A good brand, Asics, normally about $65, marked down to $19.95. Why? I think the name of the model may have had something to do with it: Bad Karma. Hmm.

I hope Alt can't tell anything about you by the name of shoes you wear. Or the type. Especially since I'm about to put on a pair of loafers. See Bill Goodykoontz among the shoes tonight at 5 p.m. on Ch.

5. He can be reached at 271-8828, or on the Internet at goodyk primenet.com Suzanne StarrThe Arizona Republic Co-author Janet Stoeppelmann shaped a narrative from Fernald's memories. 1 1 i i -i DAVE WALKER Republic TV Writer Channels 33 64 gain in growing Hispanic market NBC affiliate KPNX-TV (Channel 12) would appear to be the only clear winner emerging from the Valley's past year of TV tumult. But there are others. Though their recent success appears to be unrelated to affiliate flip-flops elsewhere on the dial, the Valley's, two Spanish-language network affiliates Univision station KTVW-TV (Channel 33) and Telemundo carrier KDR-TV (Channel 64) are both growing.

Channel 33, a full-power station and the audience leader between the two, released figures last week that show it competing head to head with big-network affiliates for key demographic groups in certain time slots. For example, the audience for Channel 33's midday block of soap-operatic novelas has increased significantly some by 50 percent and others up to 200 percent during the past year, according to numbers gathered by the A.C. Nielsen Co. Mi Pequeha Soledad, hich airs at 10 a.m., outrates several big-network soaps among women age 18 to 34, a core soap demo. See CHANNELS, page D5 rhrlp5 OsonodChtcaen Tribune Rafael Acosta and his son.

3Mt-year-old Rafael, share some quality time on a recent visit to the Chicago Children's Museum. Lazy summer? Not for modern kids paradise of bike riding, hanging out and running after the ice-cream truck parents face a rush of mere formal activities for their kids. "As if there isn't enough going on in our lives, I've got to fill an agenda for my children," said Chicago writer David Kovacs, the father of 6-year-old Jack and 3-year-old Kelly. "Even in the summer, I think, 'Wouldn't it be nice to spend time with the But after four days, I'm going nuts." What ever happened to children who entertain themselves? The short answer is late-20th-century life. With working mothers and working fathers away from the home most of the day and children consigned to day-care centers, preschools and baby sitters, youngsters' lives increasingly have See BUSY, page D6 By Sharman Stein Chicago Tribune Parenting books insist that pots and pans and perhaps a little water to splash with can keep a young child busy for hours.

Pots and pans? You've got to be kidding. Maybe for a minute or two. This generation of preschoolers demands and receives activities that make your basic kitchen equipment look like something out of the Neolithic period. Besides nursery school (starting for kids as young as 2) and day camp, there are gymnastics classes, music lessons, children's museums, ice-skating, indoor playgrounds such as Discovery Zone, pizza-and-game palaces and any number of child-based! amusements not to mention television and videos. And as summer stretches ahead once a lazily paced child's COMING UP A thriller The sci-fi film Species gives modern lovers something new to worry about.

Friday in Weekend..