Garcia, Tena

Tena Garcia was born into Acoma Pueblo in December 1964. Her mother was Rose Chino Garcia, her grandmother Marie Z. Chino. Tena learned to make pottery through watching and working with them as she was growing up.

Some of Tena’s work was included in the 1974 exhibit Seven Families in Pueblo Pottery at the Maxwell Museum at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque.

Tena mostly makes traditional polychrome and Mimbres– and Anasazi-Revival black-on-white jars, bowls, seed pots, miniatures and wedding vases. One of her wedding vases earned her a First Place award at the 1989 Santa Fe Indian Market. Her favorite designs to paint include Mimbres animals, reptiles and insects.