Abeita, Karen

“Here I was surrounded by rows and rows of shelves loaded with pottery from Sikyátki. I took out my sketch book and a pencil, quickly sat down and began copying designs. I applied to the biggest Indian art show in North America, the Santa Fe Indian Market, and was selected as one of the upcoming new artists from among several hundred applicants. I knew in my mind that there was no turning back.” – Karen speaking of time she spent at the Philadelphia Museum of Art

In 1960, Karen Abeita was born in an Albuquerque hospital to a Hopi-Tewa woman named Lenora Nahoodyce Abeyta. Lenora had married an Isleta Pueblo man named Isidor Abeita, Sr. and moved from Hopi to Isleta Pueblo (which move was counter to tradition) but she returned to Hopi after Karen’s birth.

Karen grew up in a traditional Hopi-Tewa home, a member of the Kachina/Parrot clan. She still lives a very strong traditional life where she speaks her native tongue and actively participates in tribal dances and ceremonies.

Karen says she has been a potter since she could first reach her hands into the clay bucket. Her grandmother, Mamie Nahoodyce, and her great-aunt, Patty Maho, and great-grandmothers, Po’Tsah-Weh, Pong Sayah, Kweh–Kah and several other aunts, Joy Navasie, Beth Sakeva and Sadie Adams, were all well respected potters.

Karen, however, credits her childhood friend, Fawn Navasie, with being her primary teacher. With her expertise and patience, Fawn taught Karen how to mold large pots, how to fire using sheep manure and, most of all, how to respect the clay and never forget to pray. She also believes that putting your heart and mind into what you are creating is the ultimate reward in the end because in front of your eyes is something you’ve created.

Karen says she thanks the clay for letting her be who she is. Her pottery is all hand coiled. The only tool she uses is a piece of gourd to shape her pots. Her pots range from 3 inches by 2 inches to almost 24 inches in diameter and 18 inches in height.

The painting is done with brushes made from the yucca plant and the paint is made from the mustard seed plant. The boiled-down paint is poured onto a painting stone and rubbed back and forth to mix with black hematite. The painting is one of the most important procedures. An artist can paint the most beautiful design on pottery but if the paint wasn’t mixed properly, it will all rub off.

After the painting is complete, the pottery is then fired outside with sheep manure. This can take up to 6 hours so patience is key. Cooling off too quickly or uncovering too soon will result in the pottery cracking. Karen prefers to allow the pots to cool slowly, taking most of a day, unless she does the firing in the evening and uncovers the pots the next morning.

The designs Karen paints on her pottery are usually near-duplicates of designs she’s found on pot shards from the ancient village of Sikyátki. Today, Sikyátki is barely mounds of stone and dirt where the ground is littered with thousands of broken pottery shards. To Karen, the ruins are a gold mine. She says she has never seen duplicates of the same design. She also says she loves to stand on the highest point in the ruin and let her imagination free to take her back in time to when the village was alive.

“What did a potter feel like when she was uncovering her just-fired pot? Was she excited? Did everyone in the village come to see the latest masterpiece?”

Karen says when she makes her journey to the ruins, she prays, then walks around and draws whatever designs she sees among the broken shards. After filling several pages with designs, she goes home and begins to paint what she calls “a shard pot.”

A shard pot can consist of hundreds of designs, none of them ever the same size, shape or style. It is also very time consuming to paint: a small shard pot can take eight days from sun up to sun down to finish painting. It is a style she has worked long and hard to create and it still continues to evolve as she finds new potsherds with new designs.

Her pottery has taken her to many places. By invitation, Karen went to see the large collection of Sikyátki pottery in the vaults of the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Previously she had only seen complete Sikyátki pottery in pictures so seeing actual pots that had been made and used about two miles from her home in the early 1300s was like a direct connection from the past to the present.

All the hard work and long hours were about to pay off. She soon proved to herself and the world that she, too, is an excellent traditional potter.

Since then Karen has participated in more than 20 Santa Fe Indian Markets and has earned numerous awards, including the prestigious Helen Naha Memorial Award. She has also earned a First Place ribbon for Traditional Pottery at the Eiteljorg Museum in Indianapolis.

Some Awards Karen has earned

  • 2020 Heard Museum Guild Indian Fair & Market, Classification II – Pottery, Division A – Painted, native clay, hand built, fired out-of-doors: Second Place. Awarded for artwork: “For the Love of Dragon Flies”
  • 2018 Santa Fe Indian Market. Helen Naha Memorial Award. Southwestern Association for Indian Arts
    2017 Santa Fe Indian Market, Classification II – Pottery, Division B – Traditional, Category 601 – Painted polychrome pottery in the style of Hopi, any form: Second Place
  • 2016 Heard Museum Guild Indian Fair & Market, Classification II – Pottery, Division A – Traditional, native clay, hand built, painted: Second Place
  • 2015 Heard Museum Guild Indian Fair & Market, Classification II – Pottery, Division A – Traditional, native clay, hand built, painted: First Place
  • 2010 Santa Fe Indian Market, Classification II – Pottery, Division B, Category 501 – Painted polychrome in the style of Hopi, any form: First Place
  • 2002 Heard Museum Guild Indian Fair & Market, Classification VIII – Pottery, Division A – Traditional: Best of Division. Awarded for artwork: “Shards, Shards, Shards”
  • 2001 Santa Fe Indian Market, Classification II – Pottery, Division F – Traditional pottery, Category 1302 – Other bowl forms: Third Place
  • 2001 Santa Fe Indian Market, Classification II – Pottery, Division E – Traditional pottery, jars painted designs on matte or semi matte surface, Category 1201 – Jars, Hopi: Third Place
  • 2000 Santa Fe Indian Market, Classification II – Pottery, Division J – Pottery Miniatures, 3″ or less in height or diameter, Category 1605 – Traditional forms, other bowls: Third Place
  • 2000 Santa Fe Indian Market, Classification II – Pottery, Division E – Traditional pottery, jars painted designs on matte or semi matte surface, Category 1201 – Jars, Hopi (up to 6″ tall): Third Place
  • 2000 Santa Fe Indian Market, Classification II – Pottery, Division F – Traditional pottery, Category 1302 – Seed bowls (over 7″ in diameter): Third Place
  • 1999 Santa Fe Indian Market, Classification II – Pottery, Division E – Traditional pottery, jars, painted designs on matte or semi-matte surface, Category 1201 – Jars, Hopi (up to 6″ tall): Second Place
  • 1999 Santa Fe Indian Market, Classification II – Pottery, Division F – Traditional pottery, painted designs on matte or semi-matte surface, all forms except jars (in the style of Hopi), Category 1301 – Seed bowls (up to 7″ in diameter): First Place
  • 1999 Santa Fe Indian Market, Classification II – Pottery, Division F – Traditional pottery, painted designs on matte or semi-matte surface, all forms except jars (in the style of Hopi), Category 1302 – Seed bowls (over 7″ in diameter): Second Place
  • 1998 Santa Fe Indian Market. Pottery, Classification II – pottery, Division E – traditional pottery, jars…, Category 1201 – Hopi (up to 6″ tall): Third Place
    – Division J – Pottery Miniature, Category 1604 – traditional forms, seed bowls, other than black: First Place
    – Classification II-Pottery. Division E – traditional pottery…, Category 1201 – Jars, Hopi: Third Place
    – Division F – traditional pottery…, Category 1301 – Seed bowls: Third Place
  • 1997 Santa Fe Indian Market. Classification II – Pottery, Division I – Traditional…, Category 1301 – Seed bowls: First Place
  • 1995 Santa Fe Indian Market. Hopi Jars: First Place
    – Bowls over 6 inches: Second Place
  • 1995 Lawrence Indian Arts Show, Lawrence, KS. 3 dimensional (large Hopi jar): Best of Show
  • 1994 Santa Fe Indian Market. Category – Hopi Jars over 9 inches tall: First Place
  • 1994 Gallup InterTribal Ceremonial. Category – Hopi Jars: First Place
  • 1994 New Mexico State Fair. Category-Hopi Jars: Second Place
  • 1993 Santa Fe Indian Market. Santa Fe, NM. Category 1443 Misc. Jars and Vases: First Place
    – Hopi vases: First Place
    – Cat., Seed Jar: Honorable Mention
  • 1992 Santa Fe Indian Market. Category 1401-Seed bowls. Second Place

Knowing that only the very best earn the Helen Naha award and are counted in the company of award-winning Hopi-Tewa potters like Rondina Huma, Steve Lucas, Mark Tahbo, Rainy Naha and Dianna Tahbo, Karen feels that she has achieved a major goal in her life. Another goal she set for herself is to put all the designs she has collected from the ruins of Sikyátki in a book.

Karen currently lives in the village of Polacca on the Hopi Reservation with her husband Darryl Daw.

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