Santa Clara Pottery

This is seedpot by Rosemary Lonewolf is from 1978.  It is fully polished and has a raccoon on the top of the piece.  Surrounding the sides are lightning, cloud and water patterns.  Note how on the sides she etched into the tan area with little circles, which creates a striking appearance. The piece is signed on the bottom “Apple Blossom”, which is her name in Tewa.  It is in excellent condition with no chips, cracks, restoration or repair.

Jody Folwell is known for her creative pottery shapes and designs.  This bowl is one of her unique shapes with with an asymmetrical rim, a round body and one flat side!  The flat side has the etched design.  Jody says the figure is a cross between a water serpent and a lizard.  There are additional corn and star patterns on the side.   The jar is fired brown with various colorations from the firing.  It is signed on the bottom, “Jody”.   It is in excellent condition with no chips, cracks, restoration or repair.

This small but extraordinary jar by Grace Medicine Flower is from the 1980’s. It is fully polished around the center and she has etched butterflies. Each butterfly is highlighted with natural clay slips.  However, it is the carved flower designs around the neck and base which are so exceptional.  They are left matte in contrast to the polished area around the center of the piece.  The are even more tightly carved as they rise up to the neck.  The piece is signed on the bottom in the clay.  It is in excellent condition with no chips,cracks restoration or repair. It is elegant and stunning!

Elijah Naranjo learned to make pottery from his mother Dolly Naranjo and sister Jody Naranjo.  He works in a similar style with the sgraffito designs and brown firing. This small seedpot has a Mimbres style lizard on the top.  It is fully polished and there are additional feather designs in the clay. The seedpot is from 2000.  It is in excellent condition with no chips, cracks, restoration or repair.

Christopher Youngblood creates dynamic pottery designs within the context of his traditional techniques.  This creative bowl uses the technique of carving the melon ribs give a more free flowing appearance.  Here the bowl has flames which are carved into the clay and climb up the side of the bowl.  Note in areas how they overlap and raise further off the surface!  The bowl is delicately carved and highly polished. The matte background area adds to the depth of appearance of the brownish-red color of the flames. The bowl has been traditionally fired.  It is exciting to see such innovative designs and precision carving balanced with innovative concepts.  Christopher has won numerous awards for his pottery including “Best of Pottery” win at Santa Fe Indian Market in 2014.

This is an amazing miniature bowl by Rosemary Lonewolf!  It is a seedpot with two butterflies encircling the piece.  Separating the two butterflies are polished vines which encompass the remainder of the surface.  It is highlighted with additional clay slips.  The various colors are all derived from natural clay slips.  The seedpot is in excellent condition with no chips, cracks, restoration or repair.

Teresita Naranjo was a daughter of Christina Naranjo and know for her deeply carved pottery.  This bowl has her stylized avanyu as the design.  The bowl is fully polished red and has the classic cream colored clay in the background.  The avanyu encircles the bowl and the body has cloud and rain designs.  It is signed on the bottom in the clay, “Teresita Naranjo” and it is in very good condition with no chips, cracks, restoration or repair.  

Pasqualita Tafoya was the sister of noted potter SaraFina Tafoya and the matriarch of a family of renowned potters.  Her early pottery are primarily carved vessels with some unusual styles of carved patterns.  This is a larger bowl of her pottery with a carved avanyu encircling the piece.  The avanyu (water serpent) is deeply carved into the clay and the surface is fully polished.  The bowl is signed on the bottom in the clay, “Pascualita”.  Interestingly, there are numerous variations on the spelling of her name depending on the time period when they were made.  The bowl is in very good condition with no chips, cracks, restoration or repair.  It is nice to see a larger piece of her pottery with such a classic design.

Ashley Browning creatively uses her photographic and graphic skills to create imagery that captures a moment or life in contemporary Pueblo culture.  This digital photo is called “NDN-opoly”.  Ashley writes of this piece, “It is a hand drawn illustration of a Native American Monopoly. It represents Pueblos (the Man on the top and the Pueblo homes), Navajos (the man in the middle holding the sheep and fry bread), and Plains Indian (the tee pees). I think this is such a cool idea they should make an actual game!”.  The first in this series won a Second Place at Santa Fe Indian Market in 2015. There are 10 pieces in the edition and it is framed in a black frame.

Ashley Browning creatively uses her photographic and graphic skills to create imagery that captures a moment or life in contemporary Pueblo culture.  This digital photo is called, “Generation Hands”.  It is certainly one of the most powerful of her digital photos.  Ashley says, “The models are  (Top to bottom) Samantha Whitegeese, Mindy Little Yellow Bird, Tina Whitegeese, Michele Tapia Browning and Lu Ann Tafoya.  It is a portrait of four generations of strong women, a Student, a disabled woodworker, a corporate person, an artist and a potter. On their arms is the tewa words that represents their relations to me. So it goes from top to bottom: younger relation (no real tewa word for cousin), relation (no real tewa word for sister), aunt, mother and grandma.”  The original photo was taken and then overlayed with the words in Tewa.   The first in this series won a FirstSecond Place at Santa Fe Indian Market in 2014. There are 10 pieces in the edition and it is framed in a black frame.

Ashley Browning uses her photographic and innovative graphic skills to create her unique digital photo compositions. This piece is entitled, “Paper Doll” and utilized Leslie Browning Tafoya as the model.  Ashley says of this piece, “After playing with paper dolls as a child, I always wanted to play with a pueblo paper doll, especially a paper doll from my pueblo of Santa Clara. I inspired it from the summer side, where there is a mix of different style and colors.”  The piece is creative with the various traditional clothes from Santa Clara. She ended up dressing the model three different times for the clothing ‘options’.  Native People’s Magazine wrote about Ashely and this piece,

 “I like to make people feel, to remember something—experience something meaningful,” says Ashley Browning, 21, of Pojoaque and Santa Clara pueblos in New Mexico. In 2013 she won first prize at Indian Market for best computer-generated graphics with her “real-life” paper doll, which featured a digitally altered photo of her model with interchangeable traditional and contemporary attire. With it, Browning used the digital present to evoke memories of the previous generation’s analog world.”

The first piece in this series won first place ribbon at Santa Fe Indian Market in 2013.  It is an edition of 10 and framed in a black frame.

Ashley Browning creatively uses her photographic and graphic skills to create imagery that captures a moment in Pueblo culture.  This digital photo is called, “Juxaposition”.  The model is Samatha Whitegeese (a daughter of Daryl Whitegeese).  Ashley says of this piece, “This photo is about young woman who is balancing her contemporary lifestyle and her traditional pueblo life. It is an everyday challenge that almost every young person deals with while going to school and participating in traditions.”  She took multiple photos of Samantha and combined them together to create this image.  The first in this series won a First Place at Santa Fe Indian Market in 2013. There are 10 pieces in the edition and it is framed in a black frame.

This miniature seedpot  by Ray Tafoya is from 1986.  It is fully polished and it is an oval shape.  It has a Mimbres style bear on one side. The other side has a stylized bear paw.  All the different colors are derived from natural clay slips.  Note how many of the designs surrounding the bear are similar to ones used today by his daughter, Jennifer Moquino.  The seedpot is in excellent condition with no chips, cracks, restoration or repair.