COCHITI, SANTO DOMINGO, JEMEZ AND ZIA

Click on the photograph for an enlarged view.

      Dorothy is the daughter of deceased Cochiti potter Mary Frances Herrera. Mary Frances started making storytellers in the years after Helen Cordero invented the form at Cochiti in 1964. After Dorothy's mother passed away in 1990, Dorothy was able to continue in the style that her mother had worked.
     These two bears are whimsical examples of Dorothy’s storytellers. We love the bear, with the cubs and the fish.

#CW12728 - Black & White Bears
A) 4" high by 2" wide
Price: $120
B) 4" high by 2" wide
Price: $120 SOLD

      Lisa Holt is the daughter of the late Inez Ortiz and niece of Virgil Ortiz, both of whom have helped and inspired Lisa in her pottery making. Lisa began making whimsical figures and has now progressed to beautifully coiled large jars. She uses all natural materials and those pieces are fired outdoors in the traditional manner. Sometimes we can see smoke clouds from being fired on a windy day. Lisa’s husband, Harlan Reano, paints the wonderfully precise and intricate designs on Lisa’s jars using the native wild spinach paint. Together they produce unique and elegant pieces.
     We have always sold Lisa and Harlan’s bowls, but this is our first figure. Something about this frog made me laugh! Look at the teeth in the open mouth. it is as if the frog is absolutely grinning at us! We love the shape – the posture, and the painting!

#CW7825 - 6" high by 13 1/2" wide
Price: $1800 SOLD

      Mary Trujillo was born in 1937. Her husband is Leonard Trujillo, who has been helping Mary with her work since the 1980’s. She learned many of her techniques in creating storytellers from her mother-in-law – the famous Helen Cordero. Mary has won numerous awards throughout the years, at all the various Pueblo art shows. There are so few Cochiti potters making the old style storytellers, we are so honored to have Mary make them for our gallery.
      This is a very large male Keres figure – drumming and singing. The traditional cowboy hat with the leather hat band is worn, and the accurate detailed clothing designs are replicated. The drum here is made by Mary's husband, Leonard. It is hollowed out cottonwood, with rawhide drum heads. We just can’t say enough about her work.

#CW5728 - 14" high by 9" wide
Price: $2200

      Darrin Aguilar is a young potter from Santo Domingo. Darrin Aguilar makes pottery in the Aguilar family tradition. He creates his traditional pottery using natural clays and mineral paints from the Santa Domingo Pueblo. His work is in classic form and design. Darrin is the son of Joe and Helen Aguilar and the brother of Vidal and Robert Aguilar. His work has been displayed in the Berger & Schiffer Publications and the Smithsonian Magazine Publication His painting is quite appealing. He uses bold tones of black and white, with interesting patterns and shapes. This is a terrific, large open bowl with great looking design work. The outside shows the circles in deep tones, while the inside shows his fine line “maze” pattern with added tulip patterns. I particularly like the fluted work on the lip of this open bowl. It is signed with a trademark moon and star on the back.

#SAN71120 - 5” high by 13” wide
Price: $250 SOLD

       Being a student of Robert Tenorio was a wonderful opportunity for Warren Coriz. From the Santo Domingo Pueblo, in his late 30’s, Warren made all his pottery in the traditional manner; hand dug clay and slips, hand coiling, painting with natural slips, and outdoor firing. Warren won two First Place Awards at the 2006 Eight Northern Indian Pueblos Show and continued to improve his work. He was a terrific painter, and also was becoming well known for his coiling of wonderful, classic shapes. There is a beautiful translucent quality to his work – very typical of Santa Domingo pottery.
       Warren was known for making particularly nice and classic Santo Domingo food bowls. These are polychrome pieces with traditional pueblo bird designs painted in black with various red slips. There is a “smokiness’ about the work, which actually makes it have an older looking appearance. His graphics are excellent.

#SAN12109 -
A) 3 ½” high by 8” wide
Price: $175 SOLD
B) 3 ½” high by 8”wide
Price: $175 SOLD

      Thomas Tenorio, was given the Indian name of “U-Nah-Thee-Wah” when he was born into the Pueblo of Santo Domingo in 1963. He is the grandson of Pete Aguilar and the son of Trinidad Aguilar and Anacita Tenorio. Thomas felt that the ancient traditional method of pottery making was dying within his Pueblo, so he was inspired to try to resurrect this long standing tradition.He creates traditional polychrome pots, often with a contemporary flare with designs. Working in clay since 1972, he is a self taught potter.
      Thomas now teaches classes on pottery making so that anyone wanting to learn the art of working with clay can do so and carry on a long lived tradition. He gathers all of his natural pigments from within the Santo Domingo Pueblo. He cleans, hand mixes, hand coils, shapes, and fires his pottery outdoors, the traditional way.
      He signs his pottery as: Thomas Tenorio, Santo Domingo Pueblo. His work is quite admired, as he has won numerous awards at many Indian Markets.
     What a great sized large jar from Thomas. The shape is marvelous, and the painting is beautiful. We particularly like the contemporary look of his fish, plants, and sea horse, but painted so nicely in that muted, traditional Santo Domingo style. It looks great on a stairwell, on a high shelf, or on a hearth. It really stands out on its own and would be grand looking in so many surroundings.

#CW10107 - 15" high by 12" wide
Price: $1900

      BJ Fragua is the daughter of Juanita Fragua. Her sister is Glendora, a wonderful potter, and her brother is Cliff Fragua, a talented sculptor. She is an exceptionally talented artist, creating some of the best of Jemez traditional pottery. She was inspired to make pottery by her mother Juanita many years ago, and has now developed a unique and beautifully elegant design style. Known for her precise and strikingly beautiful painting, she continues to use traditional images as she discovers new shapes and forms. There is a wonderful symmetry in her designs as they flow around the mid sections of her pottery. BJ carves sections of her pots, and then accentuates the painted areas in which she paints her designs. Her finishes are smooth, and she creates a high sheen to the polished areas.
This is a stunning painted vase by BJ. Using new design elements, this is the first one she has made like it. Depicting a starry night, she uses classic floral and butterfly designs. It is a lovely composition.

#CW9723 - 9 " high by 7 " wide
Price: $1050

      Glendora Fragua was born into a family of potters at the Jemez Pueblo in New Mexico. Her mother, the well known potter Juanita Fragua, was her main inspiration. So at the age of 16, Glendora tried her hand at pottery making.But unlike Juanita, Glendora experimented with the scratch technique of etched pottery called sgraffito. Her designs are created by scratching away part of the polished surface of the pot. She often sets tones (coral, turquoise, onyx, malachite, lapis) into the decorated portions of the pots.They are placed in the pot before firing, removed during that process, and then replaced after the firing. This is by far one of the most difficult of all decorating methods, but Glendora has become a master at it ! Her work shows both a delicacy and sophistication.
      Masterful and unique is a good way to describe this marvelous vase form. Using only tiny dots of coral stones as an accent, Glendora shows tremendous detailed incising of complex geometric patterns. Spirals, diamonds, raindrops, arrowheads, are all very linear and symmetric. The opening is carved in a scalloped pattern, with clearly defined black outlining. Blacks, tans, and orange hues make this polychrome piece exceptional. The work doesn’t’ stop on the top as Glendora always carries her precision throughout the canvas of the entire jar. This is such labor intensive work. This is a stunning new creation, and extremely thin walled and lightweight.

#CW51016 - 5 ¼” high by 3 ¼” wide
Price: $975

      Glendora just took on the challenge of making a mini plate for us. She hadn’t done this before, and it is lovely. The buff colored background with incised symbols is a great backdrop for the polychrome painted dragonflies. The rim is stippled with the same reddish tones. The back of the plate is finished, as well… four directions and daisies, slipped in the dark tones against the light buff background.

#CW71014 - 2 5/8” wide
Price: $395

     This is a FIRST for Glendora. She has never made this shape before, and the end result is marvelous. She calls it a “prayer bowl” We laughed together, because when it was finished I called it a “candy dish”. The inside is incised with butterflies and flowers on vines, all with great precision. The bottom is incised with dragonflies, more floral patterns, and then classic spirals. A painted band surrounds the top edge of the bottom, and the lip is beautifully scalloped. It is a delightful creation from one of our top potters.

#CW6911 - 1 ¾” high by 6” wide
Price: $1200

     I so enjoy working with both sisters, from Zia; Ruby Panana and Eleanor Griego. Eleanor Pino-Griego is one of Zia Pueblo's best-known potters. She is of the Coyote/Sage Brush Clans and has been an active potter since the 1970s working with traditional polychrome jars, bowls and vases. Ascension Galvan Pino, her grandmother, and Laura Pino, her mother, taught her. Eleanor has won awards at the Santa Fe Indian Market and the Eight Northern Pueblos Arts & Crafts Fair.
I so enjoy some of Eleanor’s old style shapes. This is a food bowl with an added scalloped lip. Look at the nice polishing all the way on the inside of the bowl – and the added design painted on the inside of the lip. Beautifully painted, it is a classic piece.

#CW5722 - 5" high by 10 1/2" wide
Price: $600

     Ruby Panana was born and raised in Zia. She is part of four generations of potters, learning most of her pottery from her mom, Serafina Pino Bell. Ruby went through the fourth grade at the Zia Day School and then went to Albuquerque for her higher grades. She attended West Mesa High School. While in high school, she helped her mother with her pottery, and then began to make some small pieces on her own. She got "bored" and went on to the University of Albuquerque working towards a teaching degree. But at that point, her scholarship money did not cover her expenses, so she had to quit college. She laughs, as she told me, "I became a very good bartender for nine years, but then I really got bored!" She wanted to start a family with her husband Larry, so she quit the bartending business and started to make pottery full time in 1983.
     Ruby's first ribbon was a FIRST PLACE in the New Mexico State Fair in 1985 and she has been winning awards ever since.
     Ruby is such a delight! Her pots are completely traditional in every aspect - materials- methods- designs... She loves her link to the past - and enjoys recreating that history in her pottery making.

#CW10720 - 13 " high by 18 " wide
Price: $1400 SOLD

     Here is another classic shaped olla by Ruby. We particularly like the black and white stripes at the top of the pot, and then repeated again in the bird’s feathers. It is a very nice detail.

#CW176 - 8" high by 9 1/2 " wide
Price: $375