NARRATOR:  

Artist Peter Voulkos. 

PETER VOULKOS:  

I was studying flamenco, flamenco guitar and, uh…Tientos is a ah, it’s a flamenco dance. It’s a rhythm, it’s a very specific kind of a rhythm. I had flamenco music going all the time when I was working. I’d work at night mostly and I’d always play flamenco. 

Tientos is a dance but its also a pile of clay. Take a look at it. If you say Tientos to somebody, they don’t know what you’re talking about. You explain to them it is a dance they can begin to see a figure in it dancing. Unless you knew that you’d just think it was a very abstract piece of clay. Which is all well and good because they can get their own interpretations out of that.  

Clay responds immediately you know. And it’s beautiful you know. You touch it and it moves. So you have to move with it. Just like playing flamenco guitar.