San Ildefonso Pottery | Andrea Fisher Fine Pottery

Erik Fender

San Ildefonso

Erik Fender was born in 1970. His mother is Martha Appleleaf, his grandmother Carmelita Dunlap. Johnnie Tse-Pe was his uncle.

As a boy, Erik learned about working with clay by watching his mother, his grandmother and his uncle, Carlos Sunrise Dunlap, making pottery. He couldn't keep his hands out of the clay and learned quickly. He was earning blue ribbons for his painting and for his pottery before he was 18. Sometimes his mother had him paint pots for her.

Erik developed an innovative black-on-red style where he separates bands of painted design with bands of low-relief sgraffito design. He also makes green-on-black and polychrome pots.

Erik told us he's inspired by historic pieces of San Ildefonso pottery. He feels the spirit in it and wants to keep that spirit alive in his pueblo. So in addition to creating San Ildefonso Revival styles of his own, he teaches classes in making pottery and jewelry at the Poeh Cultural Center at Pojoaque Pueblo. That's where he gets his fun: hanging out with his students and sharing insights about Tewa culture and history.

Erik says he's drawn from designs of the past to help create his own. His pots speak for themselves, and that's the kind of legacy he wants. He signs most of his pieces Than Tsideh, meaning: Sunbird.

Some Awards Erik has Won

2024 Santa Fe Indian Market, Classification IIC: Category 705 - Painted designs on a black or red burnished surface, any form, in the style of San Ildefonso, First Place and Honorable Mention
2024 Santa Fe Indian Market, Classification IIB: Category 603 - Painted polychrome pottery in the style of Cochiti, Santo Domingo, Santa Clara, San Ildefonso, Tesuque, Nambe, San Juan, Pojoaque, any form, Honorable Mention
2023 Santa Fe Indian Market, Pottery Classification II C: Category 705 - Painted designs on a black or red burnished or polished surface, any form in the style of San Ildefonso: First Place
2020 Heard Museum Guild Indian Fair & Market, Classification II - Pottery, Division A- Painted, native clay, hand built, fired out-of-doors: First Place. Awarded for artwork: Black-on-Black Jar
2019 Santa Fe Indian Market, Classification II - Pottery, Division C - Traditional Burnished Black or Red Ware; Incised, Painted or Carved, Category 705 - Painted designs on a black or red burnished or polished surface, any form in the style of Ildefonso: First Place
2019 Santa Fe Indian Market, Classification II - Pottery, Division D - Contemporary pottery, any form or design, using Native materials with or without added decorative elements, traditional firing techniques, Category 806 - With added elements (like beads, feathers, stone, etc.): First Place
2019 Heard Museum Guild Indian Fair & Market, Classification II - Pottery, Division E - Any design or form with native materials, kiln fired pottery: Second Place. Awarded for artwork: "Dragonfly Vase"
2018 Santa Fe Indian Market, Classification II - Pottery, Division B - Traditional Painted Pottery, Category 603 - Painted Polychrome Pottery in the Style of Cochiti, Santo Domingo, Santa Clara, San Ildefonso, Tesuque, Nambe, San Juan, Pojoaque, Any Form: Honorable Mention
2018 Santa Fe Indian Market, Classification II - Pottery, Division C - Traditional Burnished Black or Red Ware; Incised, Painted or Carved, Category 705 - Painted designs on a black or red burnished or polished surface, any form in the style of Ildefonso: First Place
2018 Santa Fe Indian Market, Classification II - Pottery, Division C - Traditional Burnished Black or Red Ware; Incised, Painted or Carved, Category 705 - Painted designs on a black or red burnished or polished surface, any form in the style of Ildefonso: Honorable Mention
2017 Santa Fe Indian Market, Classification II - Pottery, Division B - Traditional: Best of Division
2017 Santa Fe Indian Market, Classification II - Pottery, Division B - Traditional, Category 603 - Painted polychrome pottery in the style of Cochiti, Santo Domingo, Santa Clara, San Ildefonso, Tesuque, Nambe, San Juan, Pojoaque, any form: First Place
2017 Santa Fe Indian Market, Classification II - Pottery, Division D - Contemporary Pottery, any form or design, using Native materials with or without added decorative elements, traditional firing techniques, Category 806 - With added elements (like beads, feathers, stones, etc), any form: Second Place
2017 Heard Museum Guild Indian Fair & Market, Classification II - Pottery, Division A - Painted, Native Clay, Hand Built, Fired Out-of-Doors: Second Place. Awarded for Art Work: Black-on-Black Jar
2014 Heard Museum Guild Indian Fair & Market, Classification II - Pottery, Division A - Traditional, native clay, hand built, painted: Second Place
2013 Heard Museum Guild Indian Fair & Market, Classification II - Pottery, Division A - Traditional, native clay, hand built, painted: Honorable Mention
2012 Heard Museum Guild Indian Fair & Market, Classification II - Pottery, Division A - Traditional, native clay, hand built, painted: Second Place
2010 Heard Museum Guild Indian Fair & Market, Classification II - Pottery, Division A - Traditional, native clay, hand built, painted: Honorable Mention
2009 Heard Museum Guild Indian Fair & Market, Classification II - Pottery, Division A - Traditional, native clay, hand built, painted: Second Place
2008 Heard Museum Guild Indian Fair & Market, Classification II - Pottery, Division A - Traditional, native clay, hand built, painted: Honorable Mention
2008 Heard Museum Guild Indian Fair & Market, Classification II - Pottery, Division D - Traditional native clay, hand built, figurative: Second Place
2005 Heard Museum Guild Indian Fair & Market, Classification II - Pottery, Division A - Traditional, native clay, hand built, painted: Honorable Mention
2004 Santa Fe Indian Market, Classification II - Pottery, Division D - Traditional pottery, painted designs on burnished black or red surface: Best of Division
2004 Santa Fe Indian Market, Classification II - Pottery, Division D - Traditional pottery, painted designs on burnished black or red surface, Category 1101 - Jars, wedding jars: First Place
2001 Santa Fe Indian Market, Classification II - Pottery, Division D - Traditional pottery, painted designs on burnished black or red surface (in the style of Santa Clara or San Ildefonso): Best of Division shared with Martha Fender
2001 Santa Fe Indian Market, Classification II - Pottery, Division D - Traditional pottery, painted designs on burnished black or red surface (in the style of Santa Clara or San Ildefonso), Category 1103 - Bowls and jars with handles: Second Place
2001 Santa Fe Indian Market, Classification II - Pottery, Division D - Traditional pottery, painted designs on burnished black or red surface (in the style of Santa Clara or San Ildefonso), Category 1101 - Jars: First Place shared with Martha Fender
1998 Santa Fe Indian Market, Classification II - Pottery, Division D - Traditional pottery, Category 1101- Jars: Honorable Mention
1997 Santa Fe Indian Market, Classification II - Pottery, Division C - Traditional pottery, Category 1103 - Bowls: Second Place

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San Ildefonso Pueblo

Black Mesa at San Ildefonso Pueblo

San Ildefonso Pueblo is located about twenty miles northwest of Santa Fe, New Mexico, mostly on the eastern bank of the Rio Grande. Although their ancestry has been traced to prehistoric pueblos in the Mesa Verde area, their most recent ancestral home is in the area of Bandelier National Monument, the prehistoric village of Tsankawi in particular. Tsankawi abuts the reservation on its northwest side.

A mission church was built in 1617 and named for San Ildefonso. Hence the name. Before that the village was called Powhoge, "where the water cuts through" (in Tewa). Today's pueblo was established as long ago as the 1300s. When the Spanish arrived in 1540, they estimated the village population at about 2,000.

That mission was destroyed during the Pueblo Revolt of 1680 and when Don Diego de Vargas returned to reclaim the San Ildefonso area in 1694, he found virtually all the Tewa people on top of nearby Black Mesa. After an extended siege the two sides negotiated a treaty and the people returned to their villages. However, the next 250 years were not good for them. The Spanish swine flu pandemic of 1918 reduced the pueblo's population to about 90. Their population has grown to more than 600 now but the only economic activity available on the pueblo involves creating art in one form or another. The only other work is off-pueblo. San Ildefonso's population is small compared to neighboring Santa Clara Pueblo, but the pueblo maintains its own religious traditions and ceremonial feast days.

San Ildefonso is most known for being the home of the most famous Pueblo Indian potter, Maria Martinez. Many other excellent potters from this pueblo have produced quality pottery, too, among them: Blue Corn, Tonita and Juan Roybal, Dora Tse Pe and Rose Gonzales. Of course the descendants of Maria Martinez are still important pillars of San Ildefonso's pottery tradition. Maria's influence reached far and wide, so far and wide that even Juan Quezada of the Mata Ortiz pottery renaissance in Chihuahua, Mexico, came to San Ildefonso to learn from her.

Map showing the location of San Ildefonso Pueblo

For more info:
San Ildefonso Pueblo at Wikipedia
Pueblo of San Ildefonso official website
Pueblos of the Rio Grande, by Daniel Gibson
Photo is in the public domain

Maria Martinez Family Tree

Disclaimer: This "family tree" is a best effort on our part to determine who the potters are in this family and arrange them in a generational order. The general information available is questionable so we have tried to show each of these diagrams to living members of each family to get their input and approval, too. This diagram is subject to change should we get better info.

Cipriana Peña (c. 1810-)
- Santana Peña (1846-) & Antonio Domingo Peña (1841-)
  - Nicolasa Peña Montoya (1863-1904) & Juan Cruz Montoya
    - Tonita Martinez Roybal (1892-1945) & Alfredo Montoya
    - Isabel Montoya (1898-1996) & Benjamin Atencio
      - Angelita Atencio Sanchez (1927-1993) & Santiago Sanchez
        
        Sandra Sanchez Chaparro
      - Gilbert Atencio (1930-1995)
      - Tony Atencio (1928-)
      - Helen Gutierrez (1935-1993) & Frank Gutierrez (Santa Clara)
        
        Carol & James Gutierrez
        
        Kathy Gutierrez Naranjo & Ernest J. Naranjo
        
        Rose Gutierrez
        
        Geraldine Gutierrez Shije (1959-)
    - Rayita Montoya
    - Santana Montoya & Antonio Vigil
      - Lupita Vigil Martinez (1918-2006) & Anselmo Martinez (1909-1965)
  - Reyes Peña (d. 1909) & Tomas Montoya (d. 1914)
    - Desideria Montoya (1889-1982)
    - Maria Montoya Martinez (1887-1980) & Julian Martinez (1884-1943)
      - Adam Martinez (1903-2000) and Santana Roybal Martinez (1909-2002)
        
        George Martinez (1943-) & Pauline Martinez (Santa Clara)(1950-)
        
        Adam Martinez
        
        Jesse Martinez
        
        Jolene Martinez
        
        Anita Martinez (d. 1992) & Pino Martinez
        
        Barbara Tahn-Moo-Whe Gonzales (1947-) & Robert Gonzales
        
        Aaron Gonzales (1971-)
        
        Brandon Gonzales (1983-)
        
        Cavan Gonzales (1970-)
        
        Derek Gonzales (1986-)
        
        Kathy Wan Povi Sanchez (1950-) & Gilbert Sanchez
        
        Corrine Sanchez
        
        Gilbert Abel Sanchez
        
        Liana Sanchez
        
        Wayland Sanchez
        
        Evelyn Than-Povi Garcia
        
        Myra Garcia
        
        Berlinda Garcia
        
        Peter Pino
        
        Viola Martinez/Sunset Cruz & Johnnie Cruz Sr.
        
        Beverly Martinez (1960-1987)
        
        Marvin Martinez (1964-) and Frances Martinez
        
        Marvin Lee Martinez
        
        Johnnie Cruz Jr. (1975-)
      - Popovi Da (1921-1971) & Anita Da
        
        Tony Da (1940-2008)
    - Maximiliana Montoya (1885-1955) & Cresencio Martinez (1879-1918)
    - Juanita Vigil (1898-1933) & Romando Vigil (1902-1978)
      - Carmelita Vigil (1925-1999) & Nicholas Cata
        
        Martha Appleleaf (1950-)
        
        Erik Fender (1970-)
        
        Gloria Maxey (d. 1999)
        
        Angelina Maxey (1970-)
        
        Jessie Maxey (1972-)
      - Carmelita Vigil (Dunlap) (1925-1999) & Carlos Dunlap (d. 1971)
        
        Carlos Sunrise Dunlap (1958-1981)
        
        Cynthia Star Flower Dunlap (1959-)
        
        Jeannie Mountain Flower Dunlap (1953-)
        
        Linda Dunlap (1955-)
  - Philomena Peña & Juan Gonzales & Ramona Sanchez (Robert's mother)
    - Robert Gonzales & Rose (Cata) Gonzales (San Juan)
      - Tse-Pe & Dora Tse-Pe (Zia)
        
        Candace Tse-Pe
        
        Gerri Tse-Pe
        
        Irene Tse-Pe
      - Tse-Pe (1940-2000) & Jennifer Tse-Pe (Sisneros) (second wife, San Juan/Santa Clara)
    - Oqwa Pi (Abel Sanchez)(1899-1971) & Tomasena (Cata) Sanchez (1903-1985, Rose Gonzales' sister)
      - Skipped generation
        
        Russell Sanchez (1966-)
    - Louis Wo-Peen Gonzales & Juanita Wo-Peen Gonzales (1909-1988)
      - Adelphia Martinez
      - Lorenzo Gonzales (adopted) (1922-1995)
      - Blue Corn (Crucita Calabaza - Lorenzo's sister) (1921-1999)
- Tonita Peña (1847-c. 1910)
  - Anastacia Peña (c. 1876-)
    - Luisa Peña
  - Isabel Peña (c. 1881-) & Pasqual Martinez
    - Teracita Martinez
    - Petronella Martinez & Emiliano Abeyta (San Juan/Ohkay Owingeh)
      - Philopeta Martinez (1925-) & Patrick Torres
        
        Elvis Torres (1960-)
      - Torivia Martinez

Other info is derived from personal contacts with family members and through interminable searches of the Internet.