Paquin, Gladys

“I live my life for the Lord but I want to also carry on the tradition of my people making pottery.”

Gladys Paquin was born in 1936 in Rehoboth, NM, to a Laguna Pueblo mother (Adeline Juan) and Zuni Pueblo father (Dwight Paquin). At the age of 9 she moved to Santa Ana Pueblo to live with her father and step-mother, Clara Paquin. It was at Santa Ana where she was given the name Sratyu’we which appears in the signature she used on her pottery.

After graduating from high school she married and lived with her husband, Andy Padilla, at his home at Santa Clara Pueblo at first. Then they took advantage of a Bureau of Indian Affairs “assimilation program” and moved to California to find work. While in California she had two children, Danny Padilla and Andrew Padilla Jr., both of whom took up pottery making before she did (they learned the process while spending childhood summers at Santa Clara Pueblo with their paternal grandmother).

After 23 years in California, Gladys returned to Laguna Pueblo on her own, looking for a new path in life. In 1980 that search led her back to her step-mother’s home at Santa Ana to learn how to process and mix the clay to make pottery. Her step-mother, Clara Paquin, was one of the few women still making pottery then at Santa Ana.

Gladys often looked back on those days and said her teacher was really “The Lord,” meaning she was self-taught, learning through trial and error. That Santa Ana influence, though, can still be seen in some of her designs.

After 1980, Gladys specialized in traditional polychrome jars and bowls. She used Laguna’s gray clay to form her vessels and various minerals and local plants to make her slips and paints. Gladys passed what she learned on to her students, among them Max Early, Myron Sarracino and her son, Andrew Padilla, Jr.

Gladys began participating in juried competitions in the early 1980s and her first award was a First Place ribbon at the Santa Monica (CA) Art Show in 1984. Then in 1986 she earned the Best in Division-Pottery and First Place-Traditional Pottery ribbons at the Santa Fe Indian Market. In 1987 she earned Second Place ribbons at both Santa Monica and Santa Fe. In 1993 she earned another First Place ribbon and the “Indian Art Fund Award for Best of Traditional Crafts” at the Santa Fe Indian Market.

Gladys also participated in (and earned ribbons at) the Okmulgee Indian Market (OK), Twin Cities Indian Market (MN), Heard Museum Guild Indian Art Fair & Market (AZ) and the Eiteljorg Museum Indian Market (IN).

Gladys told us she liked to make large pots and decorate them with her favorite design: the rainbird. She said she developed a new rainbird design, too, and sometimes mixed the new and the old on the same pot. When we asked her where she got her inspiration she replied “I live my life for the Lord but I want to also carry on the tradition of my people making pottery.” As she didn’t come from a lineage of potters she said the Lord helped her feel free to develop new designs based somewhat on the old.

Rick Dillingham was the first trader to buy her pots and early in her career he took her to the School for Advanced Research (in Santa Fe) and showed her the designs on many old Laguna pots in their collection. After that, between her prayers and her practice she made many of those designs her own.

Gladys usually signed her pots: “SRATyu’we G. Paquin-SNZ Laguna”. Sadly, Gladys passed on in December, 2020.