Rain Scott is the son of jeweler Raynard Scott (Navajo) and a descendant of Marie Z. Chino of Acoma.  He says that growing up in Arizona, he wanted to learn to make pottery but didn’t have anyone to teach him.  In 2011, he began working with origami, the art of creating objects with folded paper.  From 2013 to 2018, he experimented with the art form and, in 2018, made his first vessel, an Acoma jar.  He calls his style “contemporary Indigenous origami.”  Each piece is made from thick paper and creates a corrugated texture.

This piece is entitled “Starry Night“.  Rain says of this piece:

This piece is made from folded paper and natural Sleeping Beauty Turquosie.  This is one of my few “plates” as they are a challenge to keep them flat.  I trim down the paper to create a flat space for the turquoise stones to sit.

Rain used white 8 1/2 x 11 sheets of paper to make the design.  Each full sheet is folded to make each section! The jar has an elegant form with a high shoulder and elongated neck.  The jar has an elegant form with a round shoulder and elongated neck.  The jar has a lid with a piece of coral attached as the finial.  Rain keeps on innovating his art form with each new piece!  Believe it or not, thousands of pieces of paper were used to make this jar! The piece is signed on the bottom, “Rain Scott”.  There is a Third Place ribbon from the 2024 Eiteljorg Museum Show.  It’s exciting to have such innovative work in the gallery.  Most recently, Rain’s indigenous origami has been featured in First American Art magazine and Native Art Magazine. 

“I call my work contemporary origami pottery.  I came up with them as I wanted to learn to make traditional pottery.  I never had a teacher to show me how to get the clay or slips.  I was always creative with paper.  I started out with swans and then one day wanted to see how I could make a vase.  It took a lot of experimentation”.  Rain Scott