RUBIN RODRIGUEZ
Potter

Rubin Rodriguez has become one of the best known of the potters who create black on black pieces. His pottery is recognizable for its high polish and impossibly perfect geometric lines painted in the negative. Rubin painstakingly polishes his pots up to seven times with river rock to give the surface an appearance of a black mirror. And his geometric work has angles terminating at precise points.

The oldest of his siblings, Rubin Rodriguez Guillen actually learned how to make pottery from his younger brother Manolo in the early 1990s. Gerardo Cota taught him the stone-polished finish on his blackware.

But the pieces now are all Rubin's, from his amazing stone-polished finish to his hallmark design of the precisely painted feathers. Another hallmark to his pots are the openings, which are most often square or rectangular instead of the typical round opening. He makes nine different sizes of ollas and he will occasionally make a pot in polychrome or tan clay. But one can really see his skill and talent shine in the high polish of his mirror-like black on blacks.