Pino, Katherine

Katherine Pino was born into Zia Pueblo around 1935 and passed on in 2017. She was the daughter of potter Ascencion Galvan Pino and sister of Seferina Bell. Kathy and Seferina both learned how to make pottery as they were growing up. Kathy was producing pottery for the marketplace in the early 1950s, and continued until she had a stroke. She made no more pottery after that. Her friend, Veronica Pino Baca, was a student of hers. Veronica recalled later in life how excited she got when Kathy would say, “Come on! We’re going to make some potteries!”

Kathy developed her own unique forms of the roadrunner and other typical Zia designs. She developed a roadrunner with overlapping wings and it became a trademark of her work. She even mixed her paints such that it was possible to tell her work from that, too. She lived in the shadow of her older sister, Seferina, and never entered any juried competitions so she wouldn’t be competing with her on any level.