Peynetsa, Agnes

Born in 1962, Agnes Peynetsa learned to make traditional Zuni pottery from Jennie Laate. Jennie taught at Zuni High School. But it’s a sad fact that in all the arts, everywhere in the world, a high percentage of talented young artists drop out and do other things with their lives. The people in Jennie Laate’s classes at Zuni High were no exception.

Jennie taught the making of pottery in mostly traditional ways – mostly traditional because the school had an electric kiln and she used it in her classes. So when the students left high school, they no longer had access to that kiln…

However, breaking this rule were Agnes’ brother Anderson Peynetsa and their sister Priscilla Peynetsa. Once she finished school, Agnes at first worked with and learned from Anderson. Anderson built a very respectable body of work in the mid-1990s and established himself as one of Zuni’s premier potters. Many of Anderson and Agnes’s older, combined effort works are signed “A.A. Peynetsa”.

When Anderson married Avelia, “A.A. Peynetsa” came to mean Anderson and Avelia. Agnes was then on her own.

Early in her career, Agnes also worked with Berdel Soseeah. Priscilla also worked hard and became one of Zuni’s finest and most recognized potters.

Agnes digs her own clay locally, grinds it, cleans it, and then forms the pot completely by hand. She also grinds her own slip for the decoration and makes her own paint. However, like most Acoma and Zuni potters these days, she uses an electric kiln.

Defending the use of the electric kiln, the brilliant potter Noreen Simplicio stated in Milford Nahohai‘s and Elisa Phelp’s Dialogues with Zuni Potters: “Over at [Santa Fe] Indian Market, when you try to enter your work, they’ll downgrade it because it’s fired in a kiln. I think it’s good that they have that for people who are totally traditional, but they should have room for people that, like myself, are both traditional and contemporary.”

Agnes is both traditional and contemporary in her pottery. According to Allen Hayes and John Blom’s “Southwestern Pottery – Anasazi to Zuni”: “All Peynetsa work is excellent: excellently decorated, excellently sculpted, often with a quiet sense of humor, never with an inflated sense of importance. Where else can you see major, museum-quality pieces right alongside a refrigerator magnet, all done with the same loving care?”

In 2018 at the Heard Museum Guild Indian Fair & Market, Agnes earned a Judge’s Award from Betsy Fahlman, PhD. It was awarded for artwork entitled: “Water jar”.