Juana Leno (1917-2000) Syo-ee-mee (Turquoise) - formerly Juana Louis Vallo - was one of the finest potters of the 20th century at Acoma Pueblo. She quietly worked every day producing extraordinary pottery without seeking acclaim. She was a wonderful woman and very modest about her talent to produce such fine pieces. She may not have achieved the fame she was due, but it was not because of the lack of quality in her work, but because she chose to remain quietly at home and not seek fame.

To purchase or read more click here..

#adobegallery #SouthwestIndianPottery #AcomaPueblo #PuebloPottery #SouthwestIndianArt #SantaFePottery #FinePuebloPottery #JuanaLeno

The Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway came to the American Southwest in the late 19th century, bringing with it a great deal of change for the region and its native inhabitants. The train brought a new brand of tourist: travelers from the East, looking for the exciting, romantic vision of the West that they'd heard and read about. These tourists wanted souvenirs to remind them of their Southwestern adventures. 

Adobe Gallery's new exhibit "Unique and Unusual Pueblo Pottery" is mostly focused on unsigned historic works created during this productive period of growth and change. A handful of notably unique contemporary pieces from artists like Tony Da and Maria Martinez are also included. All together, these pieces-wildly varied in size, shape, form and function-form an excellent display of the incredible skill and boundless creativity of Pueblo Indian potters.

"Unique and Unusual Pueblo Pottery" opens on Friday, April 6th, 2018, with reception from 5-7 p.m. "Unique and Unusual Pueblo Pottery" will highlight works from a variety of potters and Pueblos that are unique in form, design, function, or style.

To learn more about this exhibit click here..

This katsina is known as the Toson Mudhead, Toson Koyemsi, and Mudhead Ogredepending on the reference book consulted.  He is not an Ogre, however, but a relative of the family. The most proper term is Tosonkoyemsi Katsina.  This is an indication of the variety of Koyemsi and their differing functions.

A number of the Tosonkoyemsi kachinas used to come with the Soyoko on Third Mesa and demand sweet cornmeal from the girls. They would then sit and taste the cornmeal to see if it was well-ground and sweet, and from this comes their name of Sweet Cornmeal Tasting Koyemsi. Since the Soyoko has not been performed on Third Mesa for over a half a century, this kachina no longer appears in this role, part of which is now played by Heheya Aumutaka.  The Tosonkoyemsi does not appear on First Mesa, and the Second Mesa form is radically different.

To purchase or read more click here..

#adobegallery #HopiPueblo #Katsina #Kachina #Doll #SouthwestIndianArt #PuebloArt #SantaFeNM

The Squirrel Katsina appears on all three mesas but has two distinct forms.  This one is from Second Mesa, distinctive because of feather ears.

During the kiva dances in winter he is supposed to challenge any woman to take from him anything that she thinks worth having.  He also may appear at Powamu or in the plaza dances in large numbers.

This carving appears to be circa 1950s.  He is all wood except for the medicine bag he carries over his shoulder and the feathers on his head.

To purchase or read more click here..

#adobegallery #HopiPueblo #Katsina #Kachina #Doll #SouthwestIndianArt #PuebloArt #SantaFeNM

This katsina is a Runner Katsina and one of the very few Runners who consistently appear in elaborate costuming. Normally, Runners wear very little clothing, to facilitate speed in running. He appears on all three Mesas and his action is to catch another katsina and cut off a lock of his hair.

Most of the dances that are given in the plaza in late spring are accompanied by additional katsinas who may not be dancers.  Often a group of katsinas known as Wawarus Katsinas or runners will appear and run races with the men and boys of the village.  They come in the late spring, either as a group or as individuals, during a pause in a Mixed or Plaza Dance. Usually they will select one end of the Plaza and, assembling there, will endeavor to have an individual race.  If there are many Wawarus, there will be a great churning about with one or another racing down the length of the Plaza and others prancing up and down to ready themselves for the coming contest.

To purchase or read more click here..

#adobegallery #HopiPueblo #Katsina #Kachina #Doll #SouthwestIndianArt #PuebloArt #SantaFeNM

This katsina doll, probably from the 1950s, represents Chakwaina who appears most often in January during the Kiva Dances, dancing in a line with lively gestures, stooping and turning and singing a spirited tune. It has been said that Chakwaina represents Estevan the Moor, who led Fray Marcos de Niza in search of Cibola and was killed at Zuni. Barton Wright, the noted Katsina expert, said this is not likely because Chakwaina originally came from the Rio Grande Pueblos, migrated to Zuni, then to Hopi from Zuni.

Chakwaina appears at Hopi, Zuni and *Keresan Pueblos but not in New Mexico Tewa Pueblo ceremonies. Chakwaina is a warrior of great repute.

To purchase or read more click here..

#adobegallery #HopiPueblo #Katsina #Kachina #Doll #SouthwestIndianArt #PuebloArt #SantaFeNM

Crow Mother is a female katsina, however, she is always personated by a male, as are all female katsinas. The carver well illustrated that this is a tall man.  The body style is that of a young man, tall and slim. The doll is basically a complete wood carving but embellished with other materials-leather white wedding sash, fur neck ruff, and yarn and feathers on the head.  She has a string for hanging on a wall and a pedestal for display on a flat surface. The pedestal is easily removable should one wish to display her on a wall. The carving appears to have been completely accomplished with a knife as beautifully illustrated on the white manta.  There was no attempt, fortunately, by the carver to sand away the knife marks.

As we explained recently when posting another Crow Mother Katsina doll, there are two functions for which she is known-one is as Crow Mother and the other as Crow Bride.  We repeat that explanation for those who missed it recently.

To purchase or read more click here..

#adobegallery #HopiPueblo #Katsina #Kachina #Doll #SouthwestIndianArt #PuebloArt #SantaFeNM

This Silakafgoingtaka - Tewa Whipper Katsina Doll is a Tewa Katsina from First Mesa.  The Hopi name is Silakafgoingtaka and the Tewa name is Ga wong-ping.  He is considered a Tewa Whipper Katsina and is not a Hopi Katsina, although the Hopi have a name for it.  In other words, this is a Hopi Pueblo carving of a Tewa Katsina.

The sole purpose of this katsina is the initiation of the kids into the Tewa kivas, and he comes usually in pairs prior to the Bean Dance to conduct the initiation.  He appears in February to initiate the children who have come of age, and he appears four days prior to Bean Dance.

This katsina wears a sack-type face made from a net.  His ruff consists of dried corn husks, and he wears a hair roach made from wild flowers.  The illustration in the referenced book below does not have horns as shown on this doll, and this doll does not carry yucca whips in his hands as illustrated in the reference.  Perhaps there are variations in style at the different villages.

To purchase or read more click here..

#adobegallery #HopiPueblo #Katsina #Kachina #Doll #SouthwestIndianArt #PuebloArt #SantaFeNM

Teresita Tafoya Naranjo (1919-1999) Apple Blossom - Bay-Po-Vi was the daughter of Christina Naranjo and granddaughter of Sara Fina Tafoya.  She has been acknowledged as one of the finest 20th century potters at Santa Clara Pueblo. Her unexpected death in 1999 was a loss to all pottery collectors.

She was active from 1935 to 1999 and was known for her black and red carved works in the Santa Clara style.  After her husband passed away in 1950, she supported her family solely through sales of her pottery.

To purchase or read more click here..

#adobegallery #SouthwestIndianPottery #SantaClaraPueblo #PuebloPottery #SouthwestIndianArt #SantaFePottery #FinePuebloPottery #Historic #TeresitaNaranjo

This plate is signed Marie & Santana, an earlier signature, indicating that it was made from mid-1940s to mid-1950s.  Santana had started assisting Maria following the death of Julian in 1943.  Maria made the plate and Santana decorated it with 37 individual feathers fanned out in a circle.  This was a favorite design of Julian and Santana continued its use. 

Purchase or read more click here.

#adobegallery #SouthwestIndianPottery #SanIldefonsoPueblo #PuebloPottery #SouthwestIndianArt #SantaFePottery #FinePuebloPottery #Historic #MariaMartinez

Refugees from Acoma, Zuni and other pueblos established Laguna Pueblo a few years after the Pueblo Revolt of 1680. Its date of establishment was 1699. As a result, its pottery can be very similar to that of Acoma and Zuni Pueblos, and, for the most part, is indistinguishable from ceramics at Acoma, but not so much from that at Zuni except for similarity in design elements. Acoma and Laguna clay are similar but Zuni clay differs from that at those two pueblos.  Sometimes designs must be used as a guideline for distinguishing ceramics at Laguna.

The domino shaped black bars on the neck with a white split in their centers are very typical of pottery designs used at Laguna.  Also, the plant with berries is a traditional design element from Laguna, a design that Laguna potters took with them when many of them moved to Isleta Pueblo.  It has since become an Isleta Pueblo design. It is such design elements as these that distinguish Laguna pottery from that of Acoma.

To purchase or read more click here..

#adobegallery #SouthwestIndianPottery #LagunaPueblo #LagunaPottery #PuebloPottery #SouthwestIndianArt #SantaFePottery #FinePuebloPottery #HistoricPottery

This contemporary pottery jar appears to be a celebration of spring with tulips and poppies about ready to bloom.  The flowers that hang down are poppies and the erect ones are tulips. There are two butterflies busily pollinating the open ones.  The artist highlighted the leaves with green pigment, probably a natural mineral source.  The carving is deep into the clay body and expertly rendered.  Each carved line is clean and precise. The area of the vessel exposed behind the carving was slipped with micaceous clay.  The red slip was highly burnished with a stone. 

To Purchase or read more click here..

#adobegallery #SouthwestIndianPottery #SantaClaraPueblo #PuebloPottery #SantaFePottery #FinePuebloPottery #SantaFeNM #AutumnBortsMedlock

Navajo painter Tony Abeyta is one of the best and most collectible contemporary Native American artists of today.  Abeyta was educated at Santa Fe's Institute of American Indian Art, the Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore, and overseas in Italy and Southern France.  He later returned to school, taking postgraduate classes in art and filmmaking at the Chicago Art Institute. He is known for his singular style of New Mexico landscapes and his richly textured mixed media depictions of Navajo Yei Figures.

To purchase or read more click here.. 

#adobegallery #SouthwestIndianPainting #NativeAmericanPainting #FineArt #Painting #Navajo #Diné #SantaFeNM #FinePuebloPainting #TonyAbeyta

Nampeyo of Hano (1857-1942) is associated by most collectors as a potter who reintroduced Sikyatki pottery designs.  That is accurate, but Nampeyo also was a genius at creating her own designs before she began with the Sikyatki ones.  This jar, probably circa 1900, is an excellent example of a jar by Nampeyo with designs by Nampeyo. Here, she created a large design, split vertically into two similar sections.  The long curved "arm" with multiple lines at the end is probably a weaving comb, not an arm with too many fingers. The triangles with rows of short parallel lines might possibly represent corn fields.  The pair of designs pendant from the framing line just below the rim, perhaps are birds or perhaps are just designs that have no definition. The unusual design is the row of six dots. Marti Struever stated that it was a "rare design of dots."

The design was executed in brown pigment on white slip.  The rim appears to have been painted orange as an extension of the orange slip on the interior.  The design is divided by a ceremonial line break that penetrates the framing lines and the design.  The white color on the rim interior may appear to be a rim chip but it is a spot of white slip.

To purchase or read more click here..

#adobegallery #SouthwestIndianPottery #HopiPueblo #PuebloPottery #SouthwestIndianArt #SantaFePottery #FinePuebloPottery #Historic #NampeyoofHano

Following in the tradition of Nampeyo of Hano, many of her children and grandchildren and following generations of potters have used the designs of the prehistoric Sikyatkiancestors of the Hopi.  Nampeyo is known for re-introducing those designs at the turn of the last century, so we see that those designs have had a second reincarnation that is now over a hundred years old.

The design on this small jar by Tonita Hamilton Nampeyo (1934 - present) is referred to as the Eagle Tail design.  It is not known who gave names to these reused designs from a thousand years ago, but probably early traders are responsible.

To purchase or read more click here..

#adobegallery #SouthwestIndianPottery #HopiPueblo #PuebloPottery #SantaFePottery #FinePuebloPottery #SantaFeNM #TonitaNampeyo

Mark Tahbo (1958-2017) was a Hopi-Tewa potter who descended from a long line of talented artists.  He learned the art of pottery making from his great grandmother, Hopi legend Grace Chapella. A true traditionalist whose work and life were informed by those of his ancestors, Tahbo's thin-walled, perfectly painted vessels were always crafted using traditional methods and Native materials.  Mark received numerous awards from many of the significant Native art events, including Best of Division at the 1992 Heard Museum Indian Fair and Overall Prize at the 1991 Santa Fe Indian Market. 

To purchase or read more click here..

#adobegallery #SouthwestIndianPottery #HopiPueblo #PuebloPottery #SantaFePottery #FinePuebloPottery #SantaFeNM #MarkTahbo

This historic small jar is one of Nampeyo's white-slip creations.  These early jars by Nampeyo are often simple in design, as is this one.  It is such simplicity that makes it so appealing. The thick framing line at the neck and the pair of thinner framing lines at the midpoint of the jar define the area of design.  The long thin swirl lines on the slope of the neck are very typical of a design which Nampeyo continued to use later. The very minimum red slip in the design is indicative of her early work.  The rim is red. The jar would date to 1880 or so. 

To purchase or read more click here.

#adobegallery #SouthwestIndianPottery #HopiPueblo #PuebloPottery #SantaFePottery #FinePuebloPottery #SantaFeNM # NampeyoOfHano

The Fred Harvey Company was the owner of the Harvey House chain of restaurants, hotels, gift shops and other hospitality industry businesses alongside railroads in the western United States. It was founded in 1876 by Fred Harvey to cater to the growing number of train passengers. When Harvey died in 1901, his family inherited 45 restaurants and 20 dining cars in 12 states.

For the Southwest, Harvey hired architects Charles Whittlesey and designer Mary Colter for influential landmark hotels in Santa Fe and Gallup, New Mexico. The Grand Canyon was the Santa Fe's main tourist destination and a major activity of the Harvey Company. Colter's rugged, landscape-integrated, and culturally appropriate design principles there influenced a generation of subsequent Western U.S. architecture through the National Park Service and Civilian Conservation Corps structures built during the Great Depression and after.

To purchase or read more - Click here..

#adobegallery #HopiPueblo #Katsina #Kachina #Doll #SouthwestIndianArt #PuebloArt #SantaFeNM  

Helen Shupla was of Santa Clara Pueblo and Tohono O'odham tribal heritage.  She was active as a potter from around the mid-1940s until her death in 1985.  Her husband, Kenneth Shupla, was a Hopi katsina doll carver who moved to Santa Clara when he married. In pueblo culture, it is traditional for the husband to move to the wife's village. Their daughter married Alton Komalestewa, also a Hopi. He was mentored as a potter by Helen Shupla and began making melon jars of her pottery style.

To purchase or read more. 

<!-- /* Font Definitions */ @font-face {font-family:Arial; panose-1:2 11 6 4 2 2 2 2 2 4; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:auto; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:-536859905 -1073711037 9 0 511 0;} @font-face {font-family:"Cambria Math"; panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:auto; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:-536870145 1107305727 0 0 415 0;} @font-face {font-family:Calibri; panose-1:2 15 5 2 2 2 4 3 2 4; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:auto; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:-536870145 1073786111 1 0 415 0;} /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-unhide:no; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; margin:0in; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family:Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-latin;} .MsoChpDefault {mso-style-type:export-only; mso-default-props:yes; font-size:11.0pt; mso-ansi-font-size:11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt; font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} .MsoPapDefault {mso-style-type:export-only; margin-bottom:10.0pt; line-height:115%;} @page WordSection1 {size:8.5in 11.0in; margin:1.0in 1.0in 1.0in 1.0in; mso-header-margin:.5in; mso-footer-margin:.5in; mso-paper-source:0;} div.WordSection1 {page:WordSection1;} --> #adobegallery #SouthwestIndianPottery #SantaClaraPueblo #Historic #Pottery #SantaClaraPuebloPottery #SantaClaraPottery #PuebloPottery #HelenShupla 

Wilson Tawaquaptewa is the earliest carver that we know by name and he created figures that were given to the children as well as pieces that he sold. His carving career spanned at least four decades.

Wilson Tawaquaptewa would unhesitatingly alter the iconography of a Katsina doll in subtle ways. All his carvings were beautifully made, and his style is quite identifiable, although it is sometimes difficult to determine which katsina he had in mind while carving. This was not by accident. As a religious leader at Hopi, he was not comfortable with selling authentic katsina dolls to tourists, so he made slight changes to the carvings. This satisfied his conflict with religion and sales and appeased the tourist who was unaware anyway.

To buy or read more.

#adobegallery #HopiPueblo #Katsina #Kachina #Doll #SouthwestIndianArt #PuebloArt #SantaFeNM #WilsonTawaquaptewa