2020-18 Abstract katsina-face jar

2020-18 Abstract katsina-face jar

Kachina Design

  This design is part of the standard repertoire of Fannie Nampeyo and was also frequently used by her daughters on their pottery. Pot 2020-18 is well-formed and painted.  What is unusual is that it is signed with the name of Fannie’s son, Harold (Polacca)...
2020-07 Vase with kiva mural images, Zuni clay

2020-07 Vase with kiva mural images, Zuni clay

Kachina Design

Photographs: Kin g Galleries   The images on this vase are a prayer for blessing, not mere decoration.  Yet it was made to be sold, so it is also marked by commercial decisions.  Both its iconography and dual pueblos of origin are complicated. Form: The vessel...
2020-04 Snake dance mural jar

2020-04 Snake dance mural jar

Kachina Design

This is a painted pot, but it is more accurately described as a complex mural painted on a pot.  Two central rituals of Hopi religious life are depicted: On the flank of the jar dancers celebrate the bi-annual Snake Dance, On the upper surface of the jar the water...
2019-22 Mini monochromatic flute player bowl

2019-22 Mini monochromatic flute player bowl

Kachina Design

Pot 2019-22 is significant because it helps define the limits of Nampeyo’s legacy. This is the smallest pot in the collection by a potter who –as near as I can tell– make two pots in her career. Janelle is five generations removed from “The Old...
2019-15 Navajo tile of four sacred plants and frogs

2019-15 Navajo tile of four sacred plants and frogs

Kachina Design

Women from other tribes marrying Hopi men and living at Hopi are often taught pottery-making by their mother-in-laws.  This was probably true of a Zuni woman who married a Hopi man at the end of the 19th century (2011-28) and was certainly true of Ceclia Lessou...