Thirty-two years ago, American anthropologist Spencer MacCallum found three clay pots in a Deming, N.M., junk shop — a find that changed the life of a Mexican potter and led to a worldwide art movement.
"There was such integrity about those pots," MacCallum said in a recent phone interview from Casas Grandes, Chihuahua, where he and his wife live now. He has a bachelor's degree in art history from Princeton University and a master's degree in anthropology from the University of Washington. He did further study of anthropology at the University of Chicago.
It wasn't the first time that MacCallum had found something exciting in an unlikely spot. A year earlier, he had found a prehistoric Casas Grandes pot at a yard sale.
The maker of the pots MacCallum bought in Deming had not signed them, but that didn't stop him from heading south to Mexico to find the potter.
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He was afraid that customs would take the pots, thinking that they were old, so he took a picture of them and took that instead.
For the next two days, he showed the picture to everyone he met, gathering leads until he found the pots' maker in Mata Ortiz, a small village in the state of Chihuahua, near Nuevo Casas Grandes.
The potter, Juan Quezada, was surprised that anyone had bothered to take a photo of his work, much less come down and look for him, MacCallum said. Quezada had taken a leave of absence from working on the railroad to see if he could earn a living doing what he loved — making pottery.
From then on, every two months when he went down to Mexico, MacCallum bought everything Quezada had made.
As Quezada turned out pots, MacCallum recognized that he was producing them for quantity rather than quality.
"After several trips, his work was not improving," MacCallum said.
The reason: Quezada had a wife and seven children to care for.
As a solution, MacCallum offered to give him a monthly stipend, which he believes was around $300. The agreement was that Quezada could experiment with art — including art other than pottery — and that MacCallum would get anything he produced, giving him economic freedom to pursue his art.
Marana resident Jan Diers — who organized the Mata Ortiz pottery and jewelry event that MacCallum will speak at this weekend — likens MacCallum's action back then to that of an Italian Renaissance patron.
"It would have not been possible without Spencer," she said.
As MacCallum put it, "I somehow knew that the best way to deal with an artist is to give him a totally free hand, if you really want art."
Quezada's work was well-received in the United States. In the late 1970s, both the Arizona State Museum in Tucson and the Heard Museum in Phoenix exhibited it.
And today, Quezada's work is famous worldwide.
Now looking back, MacCallum said there were a lot of coincidences that led up to him meeting Quezada — such as finding the first pot at a yard sale and going into the Deming junk shop and finding the other pots.
"It was a magical time. It's as if we were being guided by some higher power, though I don't claim to have any knowledge of that, but that's how it felt," MacCallum said.
Finding Mata Ortiz
• For more information on the Mexican village of Mata Ortiz, such as how to travel there, go to Spencer and Emalie MacCallum's Web site, www.mataortizcalendar.com.
