It is recognized that changes in pueblo pottery occur about every decade with the maturity of a new generation of potters.  These changes may not be significant or important and may not be explainable as to why they occurred.  We have to accept that there was a reason or were reasons and appreciate that researchers have used these changes to assist in dating pottery.

One change that occurred at Zuni Pueblo was the abandonment of a red underbody on bowls and jars in favor of using a black pigment.  It seems that this change began to be noticed around 1850.  Over the next 45 years, red pigment was seen less and less on bases, and black appeared more frequently.  By 1885, black pigment predominated and by 1895 the use of red disappeared.

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Narciso Abeyta was known for his Indian-themed paintings, which, stylistically, are atypical of most of the Indian art of his generation. Abeyta attended the Santa Fe Indian School and the University of New Mexico. He also participated in exhibitions throughout the United States and in Paris, France. He won awards at the San Francisco Fair and at the New Mexico State Fair.  He was living in Gallup, New Mexico, at the time of his tragic death.

Abeyta regularly utilized a "somber" color palette, as Clara Lee Tanner refers to it in her book Southwest Indian Painting: A Changing Art (see reference link below). She states that he tended towards blacks, browns, burnt ochre and reds. Tanner also notes that Abeyta was more interested in "bold effects than in minute detail."

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It would be difficult to operate a house without the use of bowls.  Pueblo households have a tradition of making bowls of various shapes and sizes for the intended use.  The smallest bowls were and are used from which to eat, medium size bowls were and are used to bring large servings to the dining table.  The largest bowls, referred to as dough bowls, serve for making bread dough.  Some bowls found a second use in pueblo households as lids for jars.  Rather than make a lid that served only that function, a bowl could be used for many functions including being turned upside down over a jar as a lid when not in use for something else.

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The Santa Fe Indian School's art department was created in 1932 by Kansas-born, Chicago-educated artist Dorothy Dunn.  Dunn first discovered Native American art at Chicago's Field Museum in 1925, and eventually moved to New Mexico to teach grade school.  In 1931, while back in Chicago completing her degree, she outlined and submitted a proposal to begin teaching art at the Santa Fe Indian School.  Her proposal was accepted, and on September 9, 1932, The Studio opened its doors.  Native artists Alfonso Roybal and Julian Martinez created murals to welcome and inspire The Studio's young artists.

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How about are other shows going on right now? 

The maker of this charming male storyteller must remain a mystery as I cannot find any published information on the artisan although we do know the name but no other information. The maker obviously is a talented and experienced potter as the figurine was beautifully made and designed.  He is holding one boy and a blanket-wrapped infant.  His shirt is decorated and around his neck is a bola. 

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I have been unable to find any published information on Rufina Trujillo. In a personal conversation with Mary Trujillo of Cochiti Pueblo on 20 April 2010, I learned that she was originally from Acoma Pueblo and married a Cochiti Pueblo man and moved to Cochiti. She passed away in 2007 from complications of asthma. Mary said she does not think she made much pottery in her time at Cochiti.

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In an almost playful manner, Rick Dillingham created a single wine goblet of elegant yet casual appearance. The very standard round base gives way to a twisted tower that decreases in girth and spreads out to form the bowl.

The goblet is signed but I do not see a date when it was made.  One goblet we had in the past was dated 1973 so perhaps that is when he was making them.  Since these were probably made in 1973, they might have been a college project.

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Helen Cordero's husband, Fred Cordero, was a drum maker.  Cochiti and Taos Pueblos are famous for the drums made by men of the villages.  It is known that Helen created the storyteller in honor of her grandfather.  What is less known is that she created the drummer figurine in honor of her husband.

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Maria Laweka was a daughter of Damacia Cordero, the famous figurine potter from Cochiti Pueblo, and sister to Martha Arquero and Josephine Arquero, both of whom were potters of note.  It is not known if she is still making pottery figurines. Not many potters make standing figurines, perhaps because it is difficult to get them to balance and stand securely.

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It is always tragic when a talented artist passes away at a young age, after demonstrating his or her talent to a limited audience.  The questions always remain whether the artist would have continued in an art career and, if so, whether he or she would have continued producing such outstanding paintings. 

Emerson T. Quannie was born in the Hopi village of Kykotsmovi, on Third Mesa, in 1916. He attended the Albuquerque Indian School in 1932 and, while there, painted a mural at the Albuquerque Kimo Theater. According to his wife, Quannie did very little painting after leaving the Indian School. She knew of only one painting by him after their marriage in 1939. Seymour 1988.

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This large storage jar was purchased by the current owner directly from the potter about 15 years ago. It is decorated with pictorial elements of Mimbres rams and yucca plants.  Pictorial elements on Kewa pottery, other than birds, are quite rare as almost all Kewa pottery is decorated with geometric designs in bold scale. For a potter at Kewa to use Mimbres animals on a jar is most unusual. 

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The katsina pictured here is one of the Corn katsinas. There is a typed label on verso that reads KAö KATCHINTA"A A M'. There is a Hopi Katsina named Qa'ö which also is a Corn Katsina, however, the image in this painting more closely resembles the Sotungtaka (Corn) Katsina than that of the Qa'ö (Corn) Katsina. Regardless, I think it is established that the image is that of a Corn Katsina.

Sacred Corn is very important to the Hopi, as it means life. It is not unusual for there to be a number of Corn Katsinas in the Hopi pantheon.

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For two thousand years, the Hopi people have lived a desert lifestyle.  They depend on water for their daily needs and for their plants, but water is in short supply.  Over the years they have developed a system whereby they can pretty accurately forecast the weather, but that is not always sufficient for their needs.  In order to ensure delivery of water when needed, they developed a pattern by which they ask for help from the supernatural forces that they believe control nature. 

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Assigning a date to Zuni Pueblo historic pottery is facilitated by the very large number of Zuni vessels collected for the Bureau of American Ethnology between 1879 and 1885, and by those collected for the American Museum of Natural History between 1899 and 1912.

Sometime before 1870, potters began to paint their vessels' underbodies and the interiors of their necks black.  In early cases, black was applied over the interior's red neck paint.  In those vessels, the red is faintly visible through the black.  Of course, a change of this nature did not occur overnight but may have occurred over several decades.  It is believed that the change on the neck interior was completed by 1865.  It was not until around 1900 that the underbody caught up with the neck.

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Henry Morgan is listed as a Navajo silversmith in jewelry books as having been producing since 1991, but there is no other biographical information. This wonderful pin was made in the cast method, then the three oval and domed turquoise cabs were attached in silver bezels.

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R. Chee is listed in jewelry books as a smith for State Line Indian Jewelry.  He is from Window Rock, AZ.  His jewelry is stamped R.CHEE.  There is no first name given in the documentation.

The bracelet was made in the cast form with the addition of the lined shell-shape elements attached on top near the turquoise and the two silver dots adjacent to the shells. 

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Dorothy Herrera formed a very realistic storyteller figurine of a mama bear with her cub.  The multitasking female bear has also captured a fish in her left paw!  Her single cub is riding on her back.  He is watching her intently - learning how to be a successful hunter. 

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Cochiti Pueblo potter Dorothy Herrera is the granddaughter of Laurencita Herrera and daughter of Mary Frances Herrera.  She has been making pottery, mostly storytellers, since the 1980s. This seated female storyteller figurine is dressed in the traditional pueblo dress that is over one shoulder and under the other one. 

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Yucatecas en el Parque is a stone lithograph executed in 6 colors.  It was printed by Atelier Mourlot in Paris, France.  The publisher was Brewster Editions, New York, New York.  It was printed on handmade Arches Rives & Japan paper.  There were 150 copies in the edition, and this is #32/150.

Francisco Zuñiga was born in Costa Rica at the end of the year 1912.  As an early teenager, he assisted his father at his wood sculpture workshop where carving religious figures predominated.  He began using oil paints at age 14, using his brother and sister as models.  Two years later, he carved his first stone sculpture and it won Second Prize in the National Fine Arts Exhibition.  He continued winning prizes in that competition for successive years.

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Manuel Bob Chavez (1915-2003) Ow-u-Te-Wa - Echo of a Song, who was born in 1915, painted in the traditional manner, then turned to a style all his own.  This painting of a Cochiti "Flute Dancer" is of the traditional style and was painted when the artist was 25 years old.  Generally, background materials were not included by Santa Fe Indian School students but Chavez included a pueblo building and corn plants in the field as background although they are a minor aspect of the painting.

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