Garcia, Effie

Born into Santa Clara Pueblo in 1954, Effie Garcia has been making pottery since she was fifteen. She began by polishing pieces made by her mother, Victoria Gutierrez. Then she learned how to coil, form and carve her own pots. Her carving style is a variation on her mother’s deeply carved pottery outlined with matte slip; however, unlike her mother’s rounded edges, Effie’s carving is crisp and sharp.

Effie has two sisters that follow in the family tradition, all doing variations on their mother’s work (her brother makes dance figures and animals). All of them use Santa Clara clay, volcanic ash temper and red slip from Santo Domingo Pueblo. All their pots are fired outdoors with wood and they use manure (cow, sheep, or horse) to produce the glossy smothered black finish.

In 1981 Effie’s husband, Orville Garcia started making pottery on his own. He’d been working in the mines around Grants when he and Effie first met and got married. In 1982 he and Effie began working together. Orville makes the hand coiled pots and Effie draws the design which she first works out on paper. Then both work on the carving before the clay dries. Orville sands, Effie polishes, Orville recuts the carved designs, Effie outlines the incisions with slip and Orville finishes the work by painting in the carved area. The pot is then completed by ground-firing.

Their favorite style features a classically shaped bowl with a narrow base and a wide shoulder. Designs range from the traditional feather pattern, avanyu (water serpent), bear-with-heart-line and kiva step to modern elegant curves, swirls and Art Deco-influenced geometrics.

Technically, their pottery is a beautiful combination of form, balance and precision design. The work has an immediate appeal to both ethnic-art collectors and collectors of mainstream American art.

Effie and Orville have been consistent award earners at the Santa Fe Indian Market, the Gallup InterTribal Ceremonials and the Eight Northern Pueblos Arts & Crafts Show (when it was happening) since 1983.

Effie says making pottery is healing for her and she loves to see the happy faces of the people who purchase their work. Their work is signed: “Effie Orville Garcia SCP.”

Effie and Orville have passed their skills on to their son, Adrian Garcia, and their grandchildren, Brooklyn Garcia and Derrick Garcia.

Sadly, Orville passed on in the summer of 2022 and Effie hasn’t made any pottery since.