On Friday, April 21, Mom was the first one at the Gallery. She usually has been for the past 40 years. She would unlock the building, get the lights on, fire up the computer, and get the Gallery ready for business.

Yes, there is a day to recognize and celebrate Native American Heritage. It is the day after Thanksgiving. The month of November is Native American Heritage Month.

It’s not too often that you come across an artist who switches up their art style when they are successful at what they are doing.

This collection was brought to us by a couple that lived all over the Western United States. He was an employee of the Federal Government, and she worked in many organizations with Native people. Everywhere they lived, they collected Indian art from the area. Today we are featuring some of the Acoma Pueblo pottery that they purchased.

We recently received a beautiful and unique pot by Joseph Lonewolf. This man created the beautiful miniature Santa Clara pottery decorated by etching bold patterns in the pottery surface and then lightly carving designs (sgraffito) to accent them.

The Fragua name is synonymous with pottery at the Jemez Pueblo. Although Helen Cordero first created the traditional storyteller dolls at Cochiti Pueblo, it wasn’t long before the potters at Jemez began to create similar figurines.

How Did Pueblo Farmers Carry Water?

Imagine that you are a pre-historic, or even an early historic, Pueblo farmer. The home you live in is often far from the fields that you tend.

We carry a lot of nice Nativity sets from different Pueblo Artists, both old and new. Occasionally, we receive one that is unique.

Old friends are special, especially when you haven’t seen them for a while. I had not heard from Bonnie Fragua for a couple of years, which I guess is true of a lot of our Native acquaintances.

The Nambé people made traditional pottery until the middle of the 20th century when it came close to dying out. Lonnie Vigil did not start out to revive the pottery arts of his village, in fact, he did his best to get away from the traditional life of the Pueblos.

Some people have a sense of humor, some don’t. I’ve always found that it was a lot more fun hanging around with someone that did. A person I’d like to spend time with is Cochiti Pueblo potter Martha Arquero. Almost all her work captures the funny bone of the human spirit.

The Bear is important to the Tewa people. When the Tewa left Chaco Canyon on their trek to the Rio Grande, they were out of water. They found the tracks of a bear and followed them to a stream that comes into the area where Santa Clara now stands. They could hear the water before they saw it, and they named the stream, translated into English, "Singing Water.”