Ohkay Owingeh has a long history of pottery-making. Archaeologists even date certain timespans in the Pueblo II era by the San Juan Polychrome and San Juan Blackware pot sherds that have been found in many digs. The styles were so striking for the time that archaeologists have been able to reconstruct trade routes by the date of appearance of those styles in different pueblos. But the art of making pottery the traditional way is not so widespread at Ohkay Owingeh these days.

Clarence Cruz is from Ohkay Owingeh and a graduate of the BFA and MFA programs in Studio Arts at the University of New Mexico. Clarence also served an internship at the Maxwell Museum of Anthropology and, with that, added a minor in Museum Studies to his BFA.

Clarence likes to gather all his materials himself, collecting his clays, slips, volcanic ash, mineral pigments and Rocky Mountain beeweed (for making black paint and for use as a binder) on public lands in northern New Mexico. He does all his firing the traditional way: outdoors using wood, bark and manure for reduction firing, oxidation firing and open firing (to create fire clouds).

Clarence teaches graduate and undergraduate classes in Pueblo Pottery at the University of New Mexico. He also shares his knowledge and experience in the Art and Design Department at Santa Fe Community College and in Native communities.

Because of his dedication and contributions to the art of traditional Pueblo pottery, the Southwest Association of Indian Arts and the Santa Fe Indian Market awarded Clarence the Lifetime Achievement Allan Houser Legacy Award Honoring Pueblo Potters in 2012. Clarence has also had the opportunity to travel to China as part of a UNM faculty exhibition at the Jingdezhen Ceramic Institute. UNM also hired Clarence as Consultant Curator for the Inaugural Exhibition for the Alfonso Ortiz Center at the University's Maxwell Museum of Anthropology.