U.S. ceramicist and art professor Chuck Plosky admits he knew zip about Tonala’s potters before he visited a Mexican art exhibit in Manhattan sponsored by the Banamex Cultural Foundation.

Impressed by a handful of ceramic pieces by Jose Luis Cortez and Angel Santos, he scribbled down their names.

Chuck Plosky strolls through the back streets of Tonala, a place he has come to know and admire over the past two years.

Thus began Plosky’s love affair with Tonala.

Plosky, a professor of art at New Jersey City University, was back in Tonala last week to spearhead an effort to introduce the town’s potters to a wider audience at two U.S. exhibitions in the fall and early 2009.

Plosky first collaborated with the group of Tonala craftsmen known as Herencia Milenaria about two years ago.

Plosky said spending time with members of the group led him to reevaluate many of his methods of handling clay, fire and surface. 

“We discussed cultural differences and similarities, matters of food, ways of approaching clay, fire, surface, form, personal expression and how to price work for sale. We looked at mountains, clouds, cities, museums and children. We laughed a lot,” Plosky said after a trip here in August 2007.

Plosky also led Tonala youngsters in a ten-day workshop entitled “Investigations in Visual Appreciation.” He noted: “The children took me to new places intellectually and aesthetically.”

From October 25 through December 4, members of the 20-strong Herencia Milenaria will present their work in an exhibition entitled “The Color of the Tradition: Herencia Milenaria” at the Brother Kenneth Chapman Gallery at Iona College, New Rochelle, New York. The next date will be January 28 through March 6, 2009 at the gallery of New Jersey City University.

The exhibit in New Rochelle is part of “All Fired Up! A Celebration of Clay in Westchester,” a consortium project led by the Westchester Arts Council that takes place simultaneously at 60 venues throughout the county.

During last week’s visit, Plosky said most Americans are unaware of Tonala pottery and are most familiar with the popular Mata Ortiz styles inspired by the ancient city of Paquime, which is produced in a small village in the state of Chihuahua, less than 100 miles from the U.S. border.

Plosky said he finds Tonala’s pottery fascinating because of its variety and “heart.” As a whole, Mexico is “astonishing” in that each region has its own methods of firing pottery, he says. “They fire (in Tonala) for four hours, in the United States we take two days.”

Plosky’s own works have been widely exhibited and are described by one critic as “analytic sculptures of pottery forms, monumental architectural matrixes, vessels, furniture, large sculptures and figurative mythological stories.”