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Published: 26 July 2017 26 July 2017

Photos by Mary Alice Murphy

At the reception Sunday evening at Finn's Gallery for the 2017 Clay Festival Juried Show, juror Diego Valles of Mata Ortiz, Chihuahua, Mexico, congratulated event founder and director, Lee Gruber, and her team for "putting on such a great festival again."

"I am an artist, and I know what artists expect," Valles said. He said the work was of the highest quality, but he said he believes an artist's role is to inspire changes in thinking.

"I wish there were more than four prizes," he continued. He said the pieces by Zoe Wolfe deserved something, as did the mask and skull by Patricia Countryman.

For fourth place, he chose the freehand design of a Mata Ortiz style pot by Cesar Elias Dominguez Nuñez. Yona Payusova took third for a piece featuring women's rights; Celia Ivon Velez Saenz won second; and Marko Fields took first for his piece called "Greetings from Fukishima."

The show continues on display through the week at Finn's Gallery at 300 N. Arizona St., Silver City, NM.