Gutierrez, Dorothy and Paul

“They come out different each time, with different faces. It’s nice.”

Paul White Corn Gutierrez was born to Luther Gutierrez and Lupita Naranjo of Santa Clara Pueblo in 1940. It doesn’t appear that Lupita made any pottery as Luther’s name is more tied with his sister Margaret’s: Luther and Margaret made pottery together in the design tradition of their parents, Lela and Van (Evangelio) Gutierrez.

In 1965 Paul married Dorothy (Corn Maiden), a Dineh woman born in 1940. Dorothy’s mother was a weaver who specialized in weaving belts.

Paul started working with clay at home when he was around 12 years old while Dorothy had played with clay a bit when she was in a Dineh day school. Working with clay as adults, Paul and Dorothy became known for their black mudhead figures: matte and polished black human figures with distorted features, often clumped together like storytellers and their children.

Dorothy and Paul were also among the first potters at Santa Clara to make nativities. They made blackware storytellers, mermaids, and buffalo, ram and pig figures, too.

Working as a husband-and-wife team, Dorothy usually molded the clay and formed the figures while Paul did most of the polishing and finish work. They made everything from miniatures to 6 inches tall, in red and black. Some of their nativities contained as many as 17 pieces, and as Paul told an interviewer once after ground-firing a set, “They come out different each time, with different faces. It’s nice.”

Dorothy and Paul were exhibitors at Santa Fe Indian Market from 1981 through 1999. In 1981 they earned First and Second Place ribbons for a couple of their figures. There was another First Place ribbon in 1983 for a traditional undecorated piece and a Third Place ribbon in 1984 for a figure. From 1995 to 1999 they were also exhibitors at the Eight Northern Pueblos Arts & Crafts Show at San Juan/Ohkay Owingeh Pueblo.

Paul passed away in 2017. Dorothy is still alive (2021) but no longer makes pottery.