This is a classic open bowl by Grace Chapella. This open bowl is made using the traditional Hopi clay and painted with bee-weed.  The design is a star pattern surrounded by a complex checkerboard pattern.  It is an interesting design and one that is also seen for a brief period in the work of Nampeyo of Hano.  The design work has a complex feel in this piece and it is enhanced by the native firing. The bowl is signed on the bottom “Grace Chapella” and a Bear Paw Track, which was her hallmark.  The bowl is in very good condition with no chips, cracks, restoration or repair.  Definitely a piece of history!

Grace Chapella was born into the Bear Clan on February 14, 1874 at Tewa on First Mesa.  She learned to make pottery from her mother, TaTung Pawbe and also from Nampeyo of Hano, who was her neighbor.  Her name in Tewa as “White Squash Blossom”.  She was one of the great Hopi matriarchs of the last century. Grace  was the sister of Laura Tomosie and Dalee, the mother of Alma Tahbo, and the great grandmother of Mark Tahbo and Diana Tahbo. She led a remarkable life, becoming the first Hopi to fly in an airplane in 1927 and living over a century (107 years!). Grace revived designs from the Sikyatki ruins at the base of First Mesa and it is the classic butterfly or moth pattern for which she is the most famous.