Mary Frances Herrera, Cochiti Pueblo Pottery

When we organized Adobe Gallery's first landmark Storyteller Exhibition in Albuquerque in 1979, the documented canon of artists fashioning these figurative works was remarkably small. At the time, we identified only five potters actively making storytellers: Helen Cordero, Dorothy Trujillo, Seferina Ortiz, Rita Lewis, and Frances Herrera.

Despite her early contribution to the art form, Frances Herrera's pioneering work was long overlooked in early scholarship-most notably omitted from Barbara Babcock's seminal 1986 text, The Pueblo Storyteller. A vital key to her legacy emerged through consultation with Bob Kapoun of The Rainbow Man, who confirmed that the renowned artist Mary Frances Herrera and Frances Herrera were, in fact, the same person.

Mary Frances Herrera (1935-1991) and her sister, Seferina Ortiz, were daughters of master potter Laurencita R. Herrera and belonged to a distinguished family of nine children-a lineage deeply celebrated by collectors of Cochiti Pueblo pottery. While I was well acquainted with Frances in the 1980s through purchasing her exquisite miniature clay figurines, discovering her earlier, full-scale storytellers illuminated a crucial chapter in the evolution of Cochiti figurative art.

Reference: Southern Pueblo Pottery: 2,000 Artist Biographies by Gregory Schaaf

TAGS: Helen Cordero, Dorothy Trujillo, Seferina Ortiz, Rita Lewis, Laurencita R. Herrera, Cochiti Pueblo, Pottery Figurines