Simpson, who was born, grew up, and continues to live in Santa Clara Pueblo in the Desert Southwest, is renowned for figures that combine power and vulnerability. “I think in clay,” she has said. “Clay was the earth that grew our food, was the house we lived in, was the pottery we ate out of and prayed with. So, my relationship to clay is ancestral, and I think it has a deep genetic memory. It’s like a family member for us.” In this early work made the year following Simpson’s graduation from Rhode Island School of Design, a guardian stands proudly, as if on watch for the past and the future.