Isleta Pueblo Storyteller with 6 Children of a Diné (Navajo) Male [SOLD]

Stella Teller has a long career of making storyteller figurines and has consistently won prizes for them since she made the first one in 1978, the same year Adobe Gallery opened its doors in Albuquerque.  Her great-grandmother, Marcellina Jojola, her grandmother, Emeklia Lente Carpio, and her mother, Felicita Jojola, were all potters.

Her pottery is distinguished from traditional Isleta Polychrome wares by its distinctive colors, which she says are all natural.  The light gray, which has become her trademark, is produced by mixing white clay with manganese.  She was one of the first potters to insert turquoise cabs into the clay.  Not to be considered parochial, Teller expanded the repertoire to include storytellers representing Navajo, Isleta Pueblo, Apache and Hopi males and females.  She is credited with making the first storyteller to represent a Navajo.

This storyteller is dressed in the garb of a Navajo man.  He has four boys and two girls clamoring all over him.  The boys have their interest focused on the large drum he holds.  The girl’s minds are elsewhere.  The adult wears a painted headband, a chonga hair style, a blanket draped over his left shoulder, a turquoise necklace and traditional moccasins on his crossed legs. 

Condition: this storyteller is new and in original condition

Provenance: from the artist

Recommended Reading:  The Pueblo Storyteller by Barbara Babcock