 Sunday, July 12, 2009
Idyllwild Arts Academy
Idyllwild, California
Story by Jeanne Noël Chalfont
Photography by Sarah M. Golonka
To see more Sarah M. Golonka photos of the Native American Art Festival, click here.
Only an hour from Palm Springs, Calif., the Idyllwild Arts Summer Program commenced Sunday, July 12, with the Native American Arts Festival and will run through Saturday, July 18. The first event provided by the King Galleries of Scottsdale, Ariz., was a representation of pottery from various pueblos using traditional methods, while the styles are either contemporary or traditional. The traditional methodology consists of hand-rolling and coiling the clay, polishing by burnishing the pots with a stone, the paints being made by local materials and firing without electrical kilns. Each pueblo is distinct in the traditional method based on the materials unique to each respective area. The minerals in the clays differ from area to area. In the Santa Clara Pueblo, black dye can be made by boiling wild spinach into a tar or green dye by due to copper minerals being present. The firing varies also in how heat is produced, which could be by tree bark or as with the Hopi tribe using sheep’s manure where trees are scarce.
 Jennifer Tafoya Moquino from the Santa Clara pueblo has a distinctive, contemporary style of incising the lifelike plants, animals, insects and birds along with her use of vivid colors. She is also one of the leaders in Pueblo pottery.
 A legend of pueblo pottery is Margaret Tafoya (1904-2001) and is represented by this piece of the carved cultural traditional style of the Santa Clara Pueblo. Charles S. King, owner of King Galleries of Scottsdale, wrote the book “Born of Fire: The Life and Pottery of Margaret Tafoya" that chronicles her life and the pottery she made.
 The San Ildefonso Pueblo was blessed with the creativity of Maria Martinez (1887-1980) who breathed life into the declining interest in Native American pottery. She developed the contemporary black-on-black pottery.
 Nathan Begay, Hopi-Tewa/Navejo, uses the reconstructive process in which the pottery is made, broken and reconstructed. Representing the Acoma Pueblo is Dorothy Torivio with intricate designs that are repeated changed in size and repeated again.
 Elizabeth Medina-Zia creates a jar that is glazed with three different layers of slip (outside thin layers of clay) which alternate in matte and polished finishes. Beneath the turtle on the lid is a painted flower.
 Charles King enthusiastically answered questions from visitors, students and staff about the artists, their creative development, the processes involved and the pueblos from which they come.
Nancy and David Salvatierra of La Quinta admired one of Maria Martinez’s black-on-black jars. Nancy is on the board of the La Quinta Historical Society and David is a potter hobbyist. David Delgado came by, who is a ceramic technician, to view the selection and talk to King King. This is Delgado's fourth summer working with the Idyllwild Arts Center, and he is a student at the California College of Arts specializing in sculpture.
King has a passion for this art form. His parents had a Native American art gallery in Colorado and some of his childhood friends have become Native American artists. Even though King went to Russia working in the corporate world, he discovered that he needed to be connected with Native American pottery. The gallery was opened in 1996. He has served on the board of the Indian Arts and Crafts Association, has been a judge at the prestigious Santa Fe Indian Market, the Heard Museum Indian Market and the Gallup Ceremonials and has lectured at the Heard Museum and the Pueblo Grande Museum. The book “” is his first publication.
Later in the evening, the Native Indian Arts festival featured the film premiere, “Sing Birds.” During the week, there will be hands-on workshops covering: Native Plants Cuisine, Cahuilla Basketry, Hopi-Tewa Pottery, Navajo Weaving, Native American Flute Making and Navajo Inlay Jewelry. The workshops run anywhere from two-five days and are only for registered students. Open to the public will be a series of Brown Bag Lectures (July 14-16, noon-1 p.m.), a Music and Dance Presentation (July 16 at noon), Stomp Dance Performance (July 17 at 7 p.m.) and on July 18, there will be the Hopi-Tewa Pottery Firing.
To see more Sarah M. Golonka photos of the Native American Art Festival, click here.
To learn more about the Native American Arts Festival, click here.
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