Ivan Lewis was a son of noted potter Lucy M. Lewis of Acoma Pueblo.  He was married to Rita Banada Lewis of Cochiti Pueblo.  Together they started making bowls and animal figurines around 1971 and storyteller figurines around 1973.  Ivan learned to make pottery from Rita, so all his work was done in a Cochiti style.  It was not until around the 1980s that he began to make Monos figures. The Monos figures were originally made in Cochiti in the 1880s-1900 as a form of social critique.  This figure is made from native clay and painted with bee-weed and red clay slip.  It is a male Monos figure is intricately painted with a necklace, bun in the black.  Note how there are deer track designs on the sleeves and rain designs on the bottom of the shirt.  It is in excellent condition with no chips, cracks, restoration, or repair.  It is signed on the bottom, “Ivan Lewis Rita Lewis”.