Mesoamerican Clay Figurines at the MBAM

There’s a little side-room in the permanent collection at MBAM where they keep some cultural artifacts from Mesoamerica. They don’t get as much traffic as the big shows. It’s easy to pass right by them on the way to something more ‘exciting’.

My favorite display case has three small shelves of tiny clay figurines. They’re small – smaller than the palm of your hand.

I didn’t read too much about them – we were just sketching and chatting. But it’s most likely they’re fertility wishes. Something someone would make and say a prayer for conception or a safe childbirth.

Any anthropologists out there can chime in on what these are all about? (Jennifer? are you reading?)

I’ve really been enjoying tiny little sketches lately. I have no time right now – life is a bit crazy – and it’s one way to keep going with not-really-daily-drawing.

There’s no watercolor allowed in our art gallery exhibits, so they’re simple pencil drawings, which I tinted later on.

I would call this tinting approach – “Puddle and Poke”.

Make a wet shape with a base tone that fills the entire figure (minus the highlights) and touch-in contrasting (cool) color washes. Then – as things begin to dry down – add some small darker accents with pure pigment. Sometimes these are tiny dots or dashes of pigment – like the eyes and mouth on the mask-like heads below.

I love the free interpretation in these figurines. It would be fun to make some of these.

Maybe I’ll get out some polymer clay someday and play around with some arcane little characters!

~m