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Ann was born to an Illinois farming family on March 21, 1953. She became interested in art during her early childhood and later began formal studies at the University of Arkansas where she received her bachelors degree.
During Ann’s college years she entered into a religious community and became a Roman Catholic Sister with the Sisters of Mercy. In her ten years of service to the order, Ann taught various art classes and developed art programs for many parochial schools. Fortunately, the Sisters of Mercy encouraged Ann to continue her own artistic development. She designed and executed several murals and other public works while creating a multitude of graphic designs for cards and calendars. After ten years of religious life, Ann left the order to become a wife and mother. Since that time she has received many private commissions for paintings and sculptures, including a four by six foot multi-media piece for a newly planned health center in Loredo, Texas.
Ann has exhibited her work in a two woman show at Fort Smith Art Center, Arkansas. She also had a show at the Jemez National Monument, New Mexico. The Jemez National Monument show was Ann’s first attempt at offering her art work in a commercial market. The results of sales from this show have been very promising. She is quite prolific and her work is always of high quality with a stron, warm feeling. The success of her future is assured. “I thing, basically, I tell stories with. Clay is simple, direct and ancient.Good ingredients for a story. It’s not really all that neat and worked out. Clay is forgiving and easy and it feels so good. I really just like it, says Ann.
(Click for Ann Graffy Clay Figures) |
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Bernadette Track's training has centered on theatre and dance, but like her mother and grandmother before her, the pull of the clay has been strong. Her pottery imparts a lesson in persistent striving, curiosity and artistic devotion. Bernadette's life is filled with love and respect for nature and humanity. Native American culture incorporates the rhythms of the earth, sun and life.
"Pottery is my art. I'm simply giving back what Mother Nature wants." In 1980, she began making pottery. Mary Witkop, a friend and local potter took her to her first clay pit, and Bernadette fell in love with clay. Indeed, experience guides Track in her knowledge of art.
In 1969, Bernadette attended a summer school of dance at Connecticut College, before taking advantage of a scholarship to Julliard. Bernadette stayed in New York through the early seventies. She came back to Taos Pueblo, electing to live in the traditional part of the pueblo that has no electricity and only river water. She modeled for R.C. Gorman and had a children's theatre. She went back to college to earn her BA in University Studies.
Bernadette now stands as one of the master potters at Taos Pueblo. She employs traditional firing and hand coiled methods. The firing process leaves a distinctive mark on the pottery in the form of 'cloud fire', mottled tones of black and grey that smudge the micaceous clay surface.
(Click for Bernadette Track Pottery) |
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(Cruzita Calabaza) 1923 - 1999
Blue Corn was born in San Ildefonso Pueblo in 1923. She was named “Blue Corn” by Maria Martinez’s sister. She became famous for reviving San Illdefonso polychrome. This style of pottery had become a lost product after blackware of Maria Martinez came into demand in the 1920’s.
Although Blue Corn’s grandmother wanted her to quit school to become a potter, Blue Corn did not start making pottery until the 1950’s. At the age of 20, Blue Corn married Santiago “Sandy” Calabaza, and they settled in San Illdefonso, where they raised ten children.
In the late 1960’s, Blue Corn established herself as the leading potter in fine whiteware polychrome in San Illdefonso. Her husband, Sandy Calabaza, quit his job to help Blue Corn in carving, painting and designing her pots. They became well known for the cloud and feather patterns.
Her pottery can be found in the Smithsonian Institute, as well as other major museums in America and Europe. In 1981, she was given the New Mexico Governors Award, the greatest recognition of artistic achievement in New Mexico. In 2008, she was honored posthumously with the “2008 Lifetime Achievement Award” by SWIA.
(Click for Blue Corn Pottery)
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 As far back as Bob can remember he has been drawing and painting. When he was around ten a favorite Aunt took him to an exhibition of French Impressionists. This experience overwhelmed and propelled him into the life of an artist.
Bob graduated from the York Academy of Arts in 1970, but stopped painting for nearly ten years because of confusion engendered by the wildly divergent influences of his instructors. But, he says, he 'never stopped painting in my mind.' Bob's return to painting was triggered in 1983 when he moved to Texas, and saw the unique vistas of the Southwest. He loved the landscapes of stark simplicity and solitary beauty, but it was the qualities of the light and colors that inspired him most.
Bob lectures, demonstrates, teaches painting workshops, and is a signature member of the Knickerbocker Artists, USA.
His work can be found in numerous corporate and private collections internationally and is represented by galleries throughout the country.
(Click for Bob Rohm Paintings) |
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Chris White is native to Taos, N.M.. Born in 1975, Chris grew up in a very diverse culture. Taos offered the Arts, the people and the majestic outdoors. Combined, these elements provided Chris with an appreciation for life and fine art. His time in the mountains gave Chris an awareness of wood and grain. In seventh grade, Chris enrolled in carpentry class, taking a blue ribbon in a junior high school art show. Bryans Gallery bought this piece, and an association between Chris White and Bryans Gallery was formed. Chris’ artistic endeavors are numerous. By the time he was 16, he had helped his Dad build an earth ship-type home. When he was 18, Chris White started to build his home, on property he bought. The house was built from found objects and recycled timber. Five years later, Chris moved into his home, made of rocks, adobe, post and straw bale. At the age of 30, Chris graduated with high honors from the Institute of Culinary Education (I.C.E.) in New York, New York. Chris is currently a chef during winter months at the Hotel St. Bernard, in the Taos Ski Valley. In the summer months, Chris works on carving doors, bultos and furniture. He took first place at Taos Today Show in 2007. Currently, he teaches at the University of New Mexico in chip carving and relief. |
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 SOUTHWEST GOURD ART: D.R. Nance, a member of the Lumbee Indian Nation, grew up in the “Piney Woods” of East Texas, riding horses and being a cowboy. His desire to work with the natural elements began early in his life as he burned wildlife images into wood pieces gathered from the surrounding forests. His Shawnee grandmother encouraged his youthful artistic inclinations, but as he matured and experienced the demands of raising a family, he put his art aside and worked in the oil fields of Texas.
After 20 years of wildcatting, he once again followed his heart and returned to his passion of making things with his hands. He began by knapping flint to make arrowheads, and then made bows, arrows, and leather goods, things that supported his interests in hunting and being in the mountains.
In 1993, while attending a Native American Powwow, D.R. had a fortuitous meeting with a Lumbee man, who after seeing his painted feathers, acknowledged D.R. as an artist, and engaged him in painting drums. This man was a pivotal force in D.R.'s life, for he directed him to a gourd farm, where D.R. fell in love with the gourds. He immediately began working with them. Overtime D.R. his unique style, which shows influence of the ancient Native American artists of New Mexico, Arizona, and Mexico.
D.R., now an accomplished artist, creates powerful art as each uniquely shaped gourd speaks to him, inspiring him to burn designs and images into the outer skin and then to apply dye, paint, feathers, turquoise and metal inlay, native beads, antlers, and leather, thus blending the gifts of the natural world to enrich the gourd’s inherent beauty. What is created is an image that speaks beyond itself, bringing the magic of art as a transformational medium to the enhanced piece.
 Diverse in his offering, D.R. makes feathered masks, decorative bowls, usable water jugs and canteens, purses, kachina dolls and medicine bowls. Each piece is unique and brings the power of the spiritual world into the elements of nature to offer rare gifts of beauty and power.
D.R. Nance’s artwork is held in private collections, is exhibited in commercial establishments, and is shown in art galleries throughout the Southwest, in towns such as Taos, Albuquerque, Scottsdale, Tubac, Patagonia, Tucson and Durango. D.R. lives and works at the base of the western slope of the Rocky Mountains in Southern New Mexico, where the prairie is wide, and the sun, the moon and the stars shine bright…an artist’s haven.
Eight Northern Pueblos' Arts & Craft Show
2008 1st & 2nd Place
2007 1st & 3rd Place
2006 1st & 2nd Place
(Click for D.R. Nance Bowls) |
(Click for D.R. Nance Masks) |
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Joy Navasie (1919 - )
Joy Navasie, the second Frogwoman, was born in 1919 in Arizona. Her given Hopi-Tewa name is Yellow Flower. She began making pottery when she was 17.
Out of respect for the style made famous by her mother, Paqua Naha, Joy has a strong allegiance for traditional methods used in pottery. She signs her work with a frog hallmark that has webbed feet, to distinguish her work from her mom’s work, Paqua Naha, who signed her pieces with a frog having straight toed feet. |
 "Hopiland is where my father's side of the family comes from...and I begin most of my pieces with imagery from Hopiland- but I'm not a "Native American artist" per se- I'm an American artist with Hopi roots. Wherever I go, whatever I see, becomes the inspiration for new paintings and new motifs to use within my paintings. I can't imagine I'll ever run out of materials....In some ways, the use of a particular image in a composition- whether it's painted or silk-screened- is a visual representation of a different feeling I'm having. It's like emotional shorthand. I would like to thank my friends and patrons for the continued support in my evolution and consistently changing dilemma of being an artist ..."
Collections and Shows
C. William Gilchrist Museum, Cumberland, MD
Southwest Museum of the American Indian, Los Angeles, CA
The Heard Museum, Phoenix, AZ
NAU Art Museum, Flagstaff, AZ
Museum of Fine Arts 2000, Santa Fe, NM
Wheelwright Museum's Friends Gallery
STAP Project, Florence, Italy
Absolut, Nedra Matteucci's Fenn Galleries, Santa Fe, NM
Washington Arts Club, Washington DC
Gallery Piazza/Tony Abeyta, San Francisco, CA
Bryans Gallery, Taos, NM
Peyton Wright Gallery, Santa Fe, NM
Gallery 10, Scottsdale, AZ
Tony Abeyta Gallery, Taos, NM
(Click for Gregory Lomayesva Masks) |
(Click for Gregory Lomayesva Paintings)
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Jim Cook, Master Woodturner
Jimmy selects wood from logs left by wood cutters, timber companies and diseased or naturally fallen trees.
He turns the wood slowly to determine the shape and style of the work of art. The design is often changed as the piece unfolds to best show the grain and intricate details. Turquoise is often inlaid in the wood to further enhance the design.
The product is carefully sanded and sealed to show the true color of the wood. Each showpiece is numbered, signed and dated. With the proper care, this handcraft will be a lasting work of beauty. Do not allow it to come in direct contact with excessive moisture or heat.
Jimmy Cook was raised in Mancos, Colorado. Starting in his pre-teen years, he worked in the family business, Aspencraft, where he quickly learned to admire and appreciate the natural beauty of Aspen and other woods. He spent much of his life in the outdoors both for recreation and work and has marveled at the beauty of nature.
After serving four years in the U S Navy, he returned to Mancos where he and his wife owned a lumber yard and hardware store for over twenty years. He also became involved in mining of precious metals and metallurgy work. He designed and constructed his lathe and began turning beautiful wood hand-turned showpieces.
(Click for Jim Cook Wood Turned Bowls)
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John Suazo believes that all things have life, a spirit that exist in one spiritual existence. "I hope that by looking at and touching my works, one can fulfill that missing piece of knowledge we seek...that certain piece of art called self-expression."
"I began sculpting in 1974 while I was a student at the University of New Mexico, majoring in political science. I was inspired by constantly watching my uncle, Ralph Suazo, who carved in cedar. I feel that my sculpture is a reflection of my inner self - each piece beginning deep inside me. The stone seems alive… wanting to tell me a story and, in turn, I tell my story, so we both work together harmoniously to bring about an understanding."
Collections
IBM--New York
Pan Western Energy Corporation--Tulsa, OK
Pueblo Cultural Center--Albuquerque, NM
Mobil Oil Corporation--Denver, CO
Old Jail Art Center--Lubbock, TX
Land Development Corporation--Las Vegas, NV
Firestone Tire Company--Carson City, NV
Thunderbird Foundation--Santa Ana, CA
National Carvers Museum--Monument, CO
Body Glove--Redondo Beach, CA
Calvin Klein--New York City, NY
Heard Museum--Phoenix, AZ
Millicent Rogers Museum--Taos, NM
Cameron-Jarvis Troup Municipal Library--Tyler, TX |
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