Moquino, Lee
“I believe Clay Mother selected me before I was born to be her instrument in manifesting her beauty.”
Lee Moquino is a grandson of Santa Clara Pueblo potter Corn Moquino. Corn’s heritage was 1/2 Hopi, 1/2 Zia. He married Christine Herrera from Santa Clara and moved there to settle down. Corn became intrigued with the Santa Clara way of making blackware pottery and he was involved in the earliest days of the development of sgraffito design. He literally carved himself a large niche in that field. But even though Lee learned every aspect of the process from his grandfather, he’s one of the few Santa Clara potters who regularly uses micaceous clay in his creations.
Most Santa Clara potters might use a bit of micaceous clay as a slip to accentuate something in a design but Lee uses micaceous clays like a Taos, Picuris or Jicarilla Apache potter would: his base clay is 75% clay and 25% mica/clay mix while his finishing slip is 25% base clay and 75% mica/clay mix. And he slips the entire piece, several times. This process makes for an excellent utilitarian piece, something you might want to cook beans in.
Lee probably learned to work with that mix through time he spent studying with Jicarilla Apache potter Felipe Ortega (and they both get their micaceous clay in the National Forest near La Madera, NM).
Lee is very traditional (and very secretive) in how he works. Because of that, he’s often commissioned by other pueblos to make ceremonial pottery for them.
Some Awards earned by Lee
- 2018 Santa Fe Indian Market: Classification II – Pottery, Division A – Traditional Unpainted Pottery, Category 502 – Micaceous Ware in the style of Taos, Nambe, Picuris, any form: Honorable Mention
- 2017 Santa Fe Indian Market: Classification II – Pottery, Division A – Traditional Unpainted Pottery, Category 502 – Micaceous Ware in the style of Taos, Nambe, Picuris, any form: Second Place
Lee’s mother is Lenora B. Arrieta but we don’t know which of Corn’s sons was his father so we can’t place Lee firmly in the Moquino family tree. All we know is his claimed heritage: Zia/Santa Clara/Apache/Yaqui, and his relationship to Corn as his grandfather.