Santa Clara Pottery | Andrea Fisher Fine Pottery

Jody Folwell

Santa Clara

Plain polished brown jar with an organic opening

Jody Folwell was born into Santa Clara Pueblo in August, 1942. Her mother was Rose Naranjo, a highly respected Santa Clara potter. Jody and her siblings, Dolly Naranjo, Nora Naranjo, Tito Naranjo, and Rina Swentzell, grew up learning from some of the best traditional potters Santa Clara had to offer. Jody balances that traditional learning with studies in history and political science at the University of New Mexico, finishing with both a BA and an MA. She became an educator and lecturer from the early 1960s through the mid 1970s. It was in 1974 that Jody began making pottery full time.

Early in her career Jody moved away from traditional Santa Clara blackware and redware to create buffware with new forms, styles and colors. She does engraving, incising, carving, cut-outs and painting. Her pottery usually has a political or social message to it, whether that message be about women's rights, children's dreams or whimsical pop art.

In 1987 Jody was chosen as a top contemporary Indian artist by the Southwest Museum in Los Angeles for their major exhibit "Eight Indian Artists II." Among the other artists in the exhibit were Apache sculptor Bob Haozous, Winnebago potter Jacquie Stevens and Navajo painter Clifford Beck, and others. The experience led to years of collaboration with Bob Haozous, son of Apache sculptor Alan Houser.

Jody learned the traditional craft from her mother Rose and she passed that teaching on to her daughters, Polly Rose Folwell and Susan Folwell.

Some Exhibits that Featured Jody's Work

Something Old, Something New, Nothing Borrowed: New Acquisitions from the Heard Museum Collection. Heard Museum. Phoenix, Arizona. April 2, 2011 - March 18, 2012
Mothers & Daughters: Stories in Clay. Heard Museum. Phoenix, Arizona. January 10, 2009 - January 10, 2010
Choices and Change: American Indian Artists in the Southwest. Heard Museum North. Scottsdale, Arizona. June 20, 2007 - April 2012
Breaking the Mold: The Virginia Vogel Mattern Collection of Contemporary Native American Art. Denver Art Museum, Denver, CO. October 2006 - July 2007
Breaking the Surface: Carved Pottery Techniques and Designs. Heard Museum. Phoenix, Arizona. October 2, 2004 - October 3, 2005
The Collecting Passions of Dennis and Janis Lyon. Heard Museum. Phoenix, AZ. May 2004 - September 2004
Decidedly Diva: Part One, Jody Folwell, Polly Rose Folwell, Susan Folwell. Modo Gallery. Hudson, NY. October 11, 2003 - November 1, 2003
Changing Hands: Art Without Reservation: Contemporary Native American Art from the Southwest. 2002-2003 Traveling exhibition planned for the following venues: American Craft Museum, New York, NY, 5/9/2002-9/15/2002; Museum of Texas Tech University, Lubbock, TX, 10/13/2002-1/5/2003; Philbrook Museum of Art, Tulsa, OK, 1/19/2003-3/16/2003
Jody Folwell - Santa Clara: New Works in Clay. Faust Gallery. Scottsdale, AZ. January 31, 2002 - February 7, 2002
Hold Everything! Masterworks of Basketry and Pottery from the Heard Museum. Heard Museum. Phoenix, Arizona. November 1, 2001 - March 10, 2002
Images, Artists, Styles: Recent Acquisitions from the Heard Museum Collection. Heard Museum North. Scottsdale, Arizona. July 2001 - January 2002
The Legacy of Generations: Pottery by American Indian Women. Heard Museum. Phoenix, AZ. February 14, 1998 - May 17, 1998
The Legacy of Generations: Pottery by American Indian Women. The National Museum of Women in the Arts. Washington, DC. October 9, 1997 - January 11, 1998
Recent Acquisitions from the Herman and Claire Bloom Collection. Heard Museum. Phoenix, Arizona. January 11, 1997 - July 1997
Fifth Annual Hollywood Premiere. Four Seasons Hotel, Los Angeles, CA. November 23-24, 1991
Fourth Annual Hollywood Premiere. Four Seasons Hotel, Los Angeles, CA. November 17-18, 1990
From This Earth. Museum of New Mexico. Santa Fe, NM. July 1, 1990 - August 30, 1990
First Annual Indian Arts and Crafts Show: A Juried Competition. Univ. of Kansas Museum of Anthropology. Lawrence, KS. September 16, 1989 - October 28, 1989
The Pottery of Surprise: New Works by Jody Folwell. Gallery 10, Scottsdale, AZ. March 9, 1989 - March 15, 1989
Eight Artists II: Contemporary Indian Art at the Southwest Museum. Southwest Museum of the American Indian. Los Angeles, CA. September 27, 1987 - January 5, 1988
Jody Folwell, Elizabeth Medina, Barbara & Joe Cerno. Gallery 10. Scottsdale, AZ. January 22, 1987 - February 3, 1987
Everlasting: Four Nationally Prominent Artists. Gallery 10. Scottsdale, AZ. March 6, 1986 - March 19, 1986
The Santa Fe Indian Market Expanding Exhibit. Morning Star Gallery. Santa Fe, NM. July 26, 1985 - August 31, 1985
Women of Sweetgrass, Cedar and Sage. Gallery of the American Indian Community House. NY. June 1, 1985 - June 29, 1985
Indian Market East. Gallery 10. New York, NY. April 12, 1984 - April 28, 1984
The Ceramics of Grace Medicine Flower & Jody Folwell. Gallery 10. Scottsdale, Arizona. February 24, 1983 - March 9, 1983
Jody Folwell: Contemporary Pottery. Gallery 10. Scottsdale, Arizona. February 8, 1981 - February 19, 1981
American Indian Art in the 1980s. The Native American Center for the Living Arts. Niagara Falls, New York. 1981
Rising Stars. Gallery 10. Scottsdale, AZ. February 8, 1980 - February 27, 1980
1978 Heard Museum Guild Indian Arts and Crafts Exhibit. Heard Museum. Phoenix, Arizona. November 24, 1978 - December 2, 1978
1977 Heard Museum Guild Indian Arts and Crafts Exhibit. Heard Museum. Phoenix, Arizona. November 25, 1977 - December 3, 1977

Some Awards Jody has Won

2018 Santa Fe Indian Market: Native American Art Magazine Editor's Choice Award
2018 Santa Fe Indian Market, Classification II - Pottery, Division E - Contemporary Pottery, Any Form or Design, Using commercial clays/glazes, all firing techniques: Best of Division
2018 Santa Fe Indian Market, Classification II - Pottery, Division E - Contemporary Pottery, Any Form or Design, Using commercial clays/glazes, all firing techniques, Category 907 - Painted, any form: First Place
2018 Santa Fe Indian Market, Classification II - Pottery, Division E - Contemporary Pottery, Any Form or Design, Using commercial clays/glazes, all firing techniques, Category 907 - Painted, any form: Shared Second Place with Diego Romero
1993 Santa Fe Indian Market. Classification II - Pottery, Division G. Non-traditional, sgraffito, w/o stones, any color except black, Third Place
1989 Indian Arts and Crafts Show: a Juried Competition, Pottery: First Place. University of Kansas Museum of Anthropology. Lawrence, Kansas
1988 Santa Fe Indian Market. Classification II - Pottery, miscellaneous, Second Place
1987 Gallup Inter-Tribal Ceremonial, Classification IV, Pottery, Bowl, Plate: Best in Classification
1987 Gallup Inter-Tribal Ceremonial, Classification IV, Pottery, Bowl, Plate: Best in Category
1987 Gallup Inter-Tribal Ceremonial, Classification IV, Pottery, Bowl, Plate: First Place
1984 Santa Fe Indian Market, Best of Show
1984 Santa Fe Indian Market, Classification II - Pottery, Division G - Non-traditional pottery, new forms, innovations: Best of Division
1983 Santa Fe Indian Market, Classification II - Pottery, Division G - Non-traditional, new forms, innovation: First Place
1981 Santa Fe Indian Market, Classification II - Pottery: Best of Classification
1981 Santa Fe Indian Market, Classification II - Pottery, Division G -Non-traditional pottery: Best of Division
1981 Santa Fe Indian Market, Classification II Pottery, Division G - Non-traditional pottery: First Place
1978 Heard Museum Guild Indian Arts and Crafts Exhibit, Classification VII - Pottery, Division B - Contemporary: Honorable Mention. Awarded for artwork: Plain sienna vase. Heard Museum. Phoenix, Arizona. November 23, 1978
1979 Heard Museum Guild Indian Arts & Crafts Fair, Classification VII - Pottery, First Place 1979 Santa Fe Indian Market, Pottery: Black bowl with butterflies, Second Place
1979 Santa Fe Indian Market, Pottery: reclining figure, Second Place
1977 Heard Museum Guild Indian Arts and Crafts Exhibit, Classification VII - Pottery, Division B - Contemporary: Honorable Mention. Awarded for artwork: Brown and sienna carved pot

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Santa Clara Pueblo

Ruins at Puye Cliffs, Santa Clara Pueblo

Santa Clara Pueblo straddles the Rio Grande about 25 miles north of Santa Fe. Of all the pueblos, Santa Clara has the largest number of potters.

The ancestral roots of the Santa Clara people have been traced to the pueblos in the Mesa Verde region in southwestern Colorado. When that area began to get dry between about 1100 and 1300, some of the people migrated to the Chama River Valley and constructed Poshuouinge (about 3 miles south of what is now Abiquiu on the edge of the mesa above the Chama River). Eventually reaching two and three stories high with up to 700 rooms on the ground floor, Poshuouinge was inhabited from about 1375 to about 1475. Drought then again forced the people to move, some of them going to the area of Puye (on the eastern slopes of the Pajarito Plateau of the Jemez Mountains) and others to Ohkay Owingeh (San Juan Pueblo, along the Rio Grande). Beginning around 1580, drought forced the residents of the Puye area to relocate closer to the Rio Grande and they founded what we now know as Santa Clara Pueblo on the west bank of the river, between San Juan and San Ildefonso Pueblos.

In 1598 Spanish colonists from nearby Yunque (the seat of Spanish government near San Juan Pueblo) brought the first missionaries to Santa Clara. That led to the first mission church being built around 1622. However, the Santa Clarans chafed under the weight of Spanish rule like the other pueblos did and were in the forefront of the Pueblo Revolt of 1680. One pueblo resident, a mixed black and Tewa man named Domingo Naranjo, was one of the rebellion's ringleaders. When Don Diego de Vargas came back to the area in 1694, he found most of the Santa Clarans on top of nearby Black Mesa (with the people of San Ildefonso). An extended siege didn't subdue them so eventually, the two sides negotiated a treaty and the people returned to their pueblo. However, successive invasions and occupations by northern Europeans took their toll on the tribe over the next 250 years. The Spanish flu pandemic in 1918 almost wiped them out.

Today, Santa Clara Pueblo is home to as many as 2,600 people and they comprise probably the largest per capita number of artists of any North American tribe (estimates of the number of potters run as high as 1-in-4 residents).

Today's pottery from Santa Clara is typically either black or red. It is usually highly polished and designs might be deeply carved or etched ("sgraffito") into the pot's surface. The water serpent, ("avanyu"), is a traditional design motif of Santa Clara pottery. Another motif comes from the legend that a bear helped the people find water during a drought. The bear paw has appeared on their pottery ever since.

One of the reasons for the distinction this pueblo has received is because of the evolving artistry the potters have brought to the craft. Not only did this pueblo produce excellent black and redware, several notable innovations helped move pottery from the realm of utilitarian vessels into the domain of art. Different styles of polychrome redware emerged in the 1920's-1930's. In the early 1960's experiments with stone inlay, incising and double firing began. Modern potters have also extended the tradition with unusual shapes, slips and designs, illustrating what one Santa Clara potter said: "At Santa Clara, being non-traditional is the tradition." (This refers strictly to artistic expression; the method of creating pottery remains traditional).

Santa Clara Pueblo is home to a number of famous pottery families: Tafoya, Baca, Gutierrez, Naranjo, Suazo, Chavarria, Garcia, Vigil, Tapia - to name a few.

Harvest, Santa Clara Pueblo c. 1912 Courtesy Museum of New Mexico Neg. No. 4128

Santa Clara Pueblo c. 1920 Courtesy Museum of New Mexico Neg. No. 4214

Map showing the location of Santa Clara Pueblo

For more info:
Santa Clara Pueblo at Wikipedia
Pueblos of the Rio Grande, Daniel Gibson, ISBN-13:978-1-887896-26-9, Rio Nuevo Publishers, 2001
Upper photo courtesy of Einar Kvaran, Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License