Tse Pe, Dora

“I don’t feel like I’m doing this alone, there’s someone with me when I make something beautiful.”

Dora Gachupin was born into Zia Pueblo in 1939 to parents Candelaria Medina of Zia Pueblo and Tony Gachupin of Jemez Pueblo. She married Johnnie “Tse-Pe” Gonzales of San Ildefonso Pueblo in 1961 and, contrary to the ancient tradition, she moved to his home from Zia (the Pueblo people are generally matrilineal: home is usually where the wife’s family is).

Dora had grown up learning the Zia pottery designs and shapes but she was also used to Zia clay and using crushed basalt as a tempering agent. At San Ildefonso, Dora was exposed to the highly polished red and black wares that Rose Gonzales, her mother-in-law (of San Juan lineage), was making. The clay, the slips and the tempering agents were quite different. “We didn’t polish at Zia”, Dora has said, “we used slips and plant and mineral paints.” It was from Rose that she learned polishing, carving and other San Ildefonso and San Juan styles and techniques.

Other exceptional potters who have influenced Dora over the years include Popovi Da with his two-tone black and sienna ware and Tony Da with his exquisite sgraffito work and his use of stone inlays.

Dora’s work often includes turquoise, coral or onyx inlays on pots that also include combinations of black and sienna with micaceous slips. Her innovative style has sometimes been called “contemporary” and she often works with both polished clay and dull or micaceous clays in the same piece. However, she says she doesn’t like that “contemporary” term and considers herself and her work to be traditional.

She earned many awards over the years, including Best in Traditional Pottery and Master Potter at Santa Fe Indian Market. Dora believes in quality not quantity and sees her art to be a gift from God. “It gives me pleasure to create beauty from the earth,” she says. “Also to know that long after I’ve served my time on this earth, the pots I’ve created will live on.”

Some Exhibits that featured Dora’s work

• Choices and Change: American Indian Artists in the Southwest. Heard Museum North Scottsdale. Opened June 30, 2007
• Recent Acquisitions from the Herman and Claire Bloom Collection. Heard Museum. Phoenix, AZ January 11, 1997 – July 31, 1997
• Fifth Annual Hollywood Premiere. Four Seasons Hotel, Los Angeles, CA. Gallery 10. Scottsdale, AZ. November 23, 1991 – November 24, 1991
• Magic in Clay. Morrill Hall, University of Nebraska State Museum. Lincoln, NE. May 5, 1991 – August 30, 1991
• 1976 Heard Museum Guild Indian Arts and Crafts Exhibit. Heard Museum. Phoenix, Arizona. November 26 – December 5, 1976

Some Awards Dora earned

• 2009 Heard Museum Guild Indian Fair & Market: Judge’s Choice Award
• 2007 Heard Museum Guild Indian Fair & Market, Class. II – Pottery, Division B – Traditional, native clay, hand built, unpainted: First Place
• 2007 Heard Museum Guild Indian Fair & Market, Judge’s Choice Award
• 1976 Heard Museum Guild Indian Arts and Crafts Exhibit, Classification X – Pottery, Division C – Figurines, bells, jewelry, miniatures, etc.: Second Place. Awarded for artwork: Miniature vase
• 1976 Heard Museum Guild Indian Arts and Crafts Exhibit, Classification X – Pottery, Division C – Figurines, bells, jewelry, miniatures, etc.: Honorable Mention. Awarded for artwork: Turtle with etched serpent