Shutiva, Stella

Stella Shutiva (1939-1997) was the youngest of the daughters of Acoma Pueblo pottery matriarch Jessie Garcia. Her older sister was Anita Lowden and her sister-in-law was Sarah Garcia, a potter originally from Laguna Pueblo (Sarah moved to Acoma after she married Stella’s brother, Chester).

Stella credited her mother, Jessie Garcia, with reviving corrugated pottery. In ancient times, corrugated pottery was useful in cooking because it distributed heat more evenly and the rough surface gave better handholds. Prehistoric potters made their corrugated wares by pinching each coil with their fingers as they were building the piece, one coil at a time. In modern times, each coil is left unsmoothed on the exterior, then textured all at once with a pointed tool before it is set aside to dry. To do this, the coils need to be made precisely, there’s little room for error. Stella said, “I wondered if I could ever do it. If I just watch Mom, it’s hard to learn my own way. So I had to do it myself. It took almost four years.” She was once accused of using a cake decorator to do her texturing. After she died her husband, Ernest, gave her tools to their daughter, Jackie. Among them was an octagon-shaped carpenter’s pencil that she used to shape her corrugations.

Stella made traditional polychrome and corrugated whiteware jars, wedding vases, bowls, plates, canteens, animal and human figures and white corrugated owls.

Stella was one of the artists chosen to participate in the One Space: Three Visions exhibition at the Albuquerque Museum in 1979. She also was a participant in the 1981 American Indian Art in the 1980s exhibition at the Native American Center for the Living Arts in Niagara Falls, NY.

Stella was an exhibitor at the Santa Fe Indian Market for more than 20 years, earning multiple ribbons in that time. She also participated in the Gallup InterTribal Ceremonials for almost 20 years, earning more ribbons for her pottery.

Stella passed her knowledge and skills on to her daughters, Jackie and Sandra Shutiva and to Sandra’s husband, Wilfred Garcia.