Baca, Angela

Angela Baca was born into Santa Clara Pueblo in 1927, the daughter of Severa Tafoya and Cleto Tafoya. She grew up learning the traditional way to make Pueblo pottery through watching and working with her mother. She passed her knowledge on to her own children, David, Alvin, Leona and Darryl the same way.

On her own, she experimented with different styles before settling on making primarily carved redware and blackware melon bowls around 1955. Her melon bowls earned awards at the Santa Fe Indian Market in 1977, 1979, 1980, 1981 and 1992. In 1980 the Heard Museum awarded Angela with a ribbon for Best of Rio Grande Pueblo Contemporary Pottery.

In 1984 some of Angela’s melon bowls were featured in an exhibition at The Graphic Image in Milburn, NJ, alongside pieces by Maria Martinez, Popovi Da, Stella Chavarria, Blue Corn and others.

Some of Angela’s bowls are on display in the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, DC, the Heard Museum in Phoenix and many other museums and galleries.

After raising and helping to raise many children and grandchildren, nieces and nephews, and teaching more than a few how to make pottery the traditional way, Angela passed on in 2014.