Lasiloo, Alan

Alan Lasiloo was born at Zuni Pueblo in 1969. While growing up, he was exposed to the basics of making pottery at his grandmother’s home. After graduating from Zuni High School he went to Santa Fe and attended the Institute of American Indian Arts. That’s where he first applied himself to making pottery and learned to work with micaceous clay.

From there he went to the American College for the Applied Arts in Los Angeles to study fashion design. Then he returned to Zuni in 1999 and began the journey to becoming a potter.

First he had to recall what he’d learned from his grandmother so many years before. Then he spent years experimenting with his process. He learned how to turn a “mistake” into a centerpiece. He learned different ways to fire his pottery. He learned how to enhance streaking and make that part of his design.

As he puts it: “I try to utilize what I have learned about fashion design by using lines, curves and pleats in my clay sculptures. This creates movement and brings life to the pieces.”

Alan first entered the Santa Fe Indian Market in 2007 and earned red and blue ribbons that year for a couple of his pieces. He works a lot with Zuni white clay but also uses golden micaceous slips.

Some of Alan’s work is in the Heard Museum object collection.