Louis Naranjo and his wife, Virginia, were true innovators of the figurative pottery tradition of Cochiti Pueblo. They crafted their figurines at the kitchen table in their comfortable adobe home at the pueblo. They worked almost every day crafting their art with great care, joking and exchanging the gossip of the day as they went along, accompanied by television, children and grandchildren. Their art provided a good life for them and it provided a legacy that will be with us for another century or more.

Louis and Virginia had a wonderful sense of humor. They fashioned figurines in clay of bikini clad men and women with cameras dangling from their necks, mermaids, men with baseball caps, Santa Claus, and many other characters. Also, they crafted angels, storytellers, padres, nacimientos and pueblo dancers.

This figurine of Santa Claus holding two young boys on his lap is a creation from the fertile mind of Louis. I believe he was the first to make such a figure.

Condition: The figurine is in original excellent condition.

Provenance: ex. coll. Florida pottery collectors