Carolyn Concho, lkac2l295: Miniature polychrome jar with applique and painted lizard, ladybug, and geometric design

$135.00

A miniature polychrome jar with an applique and painted lizard, ladybug and geometric design

In stock

SKU: lkac2l295 Category: Tags: , , , ,
Concho, Carolyn
Dimensions 2 × 2 × 1.25 in
Measurement

Stand is shown for scale only
Condition of Piece

Excellent
Date Born

2022
Signature

Carolyn Concho Acoma, NM

Brand

Concho, Carolyn

Acoma Pueblo potter Carolyn Concho Born into Acoma Pueblo in 1961, Carolyn Lewis Concho is the daughter of Katherine and Edward Lewis. She's a member of the Acoma Yellow Corn Clan.

After growing up surrounded by some of Acoma's finest potters, she became known as one of the "Five Lewis Sisters of Acoma": Rebecca Lucario, Marilyn Ray, Judy Lewis, Carolyn Concho and Diane Lewis. Actively producing pottery since 1984, Carolyn credits her older sisters with helping her make the decision to become a pottery artist.

As she uses only natural materials to create her pottery, Carolyn gathers her clay, minerals, and plants for pigments on the lands of Acoma Pueblo. She soaks the clay, cleans, mixes, hand coils, sands, paints her designs, and then finishes the process by kiln firing her pottery.

Carolyn's creations always start with animals that are fashioned after ancient Mimbres designs. Many believe that some of the prehistoric Mimbres people migrated to the area of Acoma Pueblo.

Carolyn's trademark is an appliqué element on her seed pots and plates, such as an ear or head of a rabbit or lizard that pops out of the surface in three dimensions, rendering a realistic effect and adding a bit of whimsy. She decides the placement of the creatures and surrounds the figures with fine black-line designs. Carolyn uses a camel hair brush since she's found that yucca brushes don't glide smoothly enough for her purposes.

Carolyn has earned numerous awards at the Heard Museum Indian Art Fair, Eight Northern Pueblos Arts and Crafts Show, New Mexico State Fair, Gallup Intertribal Ceremonial, and Santa Fe Indian Market. Carolyn signs her pottery "Carolyn Concho, Acoma".

Carolyn has shared the meanings of some of her designs with us:
Butterfly = Beauty, Dragonfly = Messenger, Turtle = Longevity, Hummingbird = Prosperity, Bird = Cloud Swallower, Lady Bug = Good Luck, Fish = Faith, Rabbit = Abundance, Lizard = Curiosity, Kokopeli = Fertility

Some Exhibits that featured works by Carolyn

  • Beyond Tradition. Santa Fe East. Santa Fe, NM. August 17-20, 1989
  • Sisters. Case Trading Post, Wheelwright Museum of the American Indian. Santa Fe, NM. 1987

Some Awards earned by Carolyn

  • 2012 Heard Museum Guild Indian Fair & Market, Classification II - Pottery, Division A - Traditional, native clay, hand built, painted: Honorable Mention
  • 2008 Santa Fe Indian Market, Classification II - Pottery, Division G - Non-traditional pottery, any form or design, using traditional materials with or without added decorative clay elements, all firing techniques, Category 1407 - Figures, sets of two or more separate pieces: First Place
  • 2008 Santa Fe Indian Market, Classification II - Pottery, Division G - Non-traditional pottery, any form or design, using traditional materials with or without added decorative clay elements, all firing techniques, Category 1411 - Sgraffito, any other colors: First Place
  • 2004 Santa Fe Indian Market, Classification II - Pottery, Division F - Traditional pottery, painted designs on matte or semi-matte surface, all forms except jars, Category 1304 - Canteens: First Place
  • 2001 Santa Fe Indian Market, Classification II - Pottery, Division H - Non-traditional pottery, any form or design, using traditional materials and non-traditional techniques, decorative elements, Category 1507 - Miscellaneous: Third Place
  • 2000 Santa Fe Indian Market, Classification II - Pottery, Division F - Traditional pottery, painted designs on matte or semi-matte surface, Category 1301 - Seed bowls up to 7" diameter: Third Place
  • 2000 Santa Fe Indian Market, Classification II - Pottery, Division G - Non-traditional pottery, new forms using traditional materials and techniques, Category 1409 - Miscellaneous up to 6": Second Place
  • 1999 Santa Fe Indian Market, Classification II - Pottery, Division F - Traditional pottery, painted designs on matte or semi-matte surface, Category 1314 - Miscellaneous: Second Place
  • 1999 Santa Fe Indian Market, Classification II - Pottery, Division H - Non-traditional pottery, new forms using traditional materials & techniques, Category 1409 - Miscellaneous, up to 6" including items with figure or designs in relief: Second Place
  • 1998 Santa Fe Indian Market, Classification II - Pottery, Division F - Traditional pottery, Category 1302 - Seed bowls: Third Place
  • 1997 Santa Fe Indian Market, Classification II - Pottery, Division F - Traditional pottery, Category 1301 - Seed bowls: Third Place
  • 1996 Santa Fe Indian Market, Classification II - Pottery, Division J - Pottery miniatures, Category 1604 - Traditional forms: First Place
  • 1995 Santa Fe Indian Market, Classification II - Pottery, Division G - Traditional pottery, painted designs on matte or semi-matte surface, Category 1403 - Other bowl forms: Second Place
  • 1995 Santa Fe Indian Market, Classification II - Pottery, Division G - Traditional pottery, painted designs on matte or semi-matte surface, Category 1401 - Seed bowls: Second Place
  • 1995 Santa Fe Indian Market, Classification II - Pottery, Division H - Non-traditional pottery, new forms using traditional materials & techniques, Category 1505 - Bowls: First Place
  • 1995 Santa Fe Indian Market, Classification II - Pottery, Division K - Pottery miniatures, 3" or less in height or diameter, Category 1704 - Traditional forms, seed bowls: Second Place
  • 1994 Santa Fe Indian Market, Classification II - Pottery, Division G - Traditional pottery, painted designs, Category 1401 - Seed bowls up to 7" diameter: Third Place
  • 1992 Santa Fe Indian Market, Classification II - Pottery, Division I - Pottery Miniatures, 3" or less in height or diameter, Category 1704 - Traditional other bowls: Second Place
  • 1992 Santa Fe Indian Market, Classification II - Pottery, Division I - Pottery Miniatures, 3" or less in height or diameter, Category 1703 - Traditional seed bowls: Third Place
  • 1989 Santa Fe Indian Market, Classification II - Pottery, Division II - Non-traditional, Category 1304 - Bowls: First Place
  • 1989 Santa Fe Indian Market, Classification II - Pottery, Division II - Non-traditional, Category 1304 - Bowls: Second Place
  • 1986 Santa Fe Indian Market, Classification II - Pottery, Division F - Pottery miniatures, 3" or less, Category 1402 - Traditional forms, melon and seed bowls: Second Place
  • 1986 Santa Fe Indian Market, Classification II - Pottery, Division G - Traditional pottery painted, Category 1205 - Seed bowls: Second Place

A Short History of Acoma Pueblo

An aerial view looking down on the mesa top where the Pueblo of Acoma is perched
Acoma/Sky City

According to Acoma oral history, the sacred twins led their ancestors to "Ako." Ako turned out to be a magical mesa composed mostly of white rock. There the sacred twins instructed the ancestors to make that mesa their home. Acoma Pueblo is called "Sky City" because of its position atop the high mesa.

Acoma, Old Oraibi (at Hopi) and Taos all lay claim to being the oldest continuously inhabited community in the U.S. Those competing claims are hard to settle as each village can point to archaeological remnants close by to substantiate each village's claim. Acoma is located about 60 miles west of Albuquerque in a landscape littered with the ruins of ancient pueblos, many more than 1,000 years old.

The people of Acoma have an oral tradition that says they've been living in the same area for more than 2,000 years. Archaeologists feel more that the present pueblo was established near the end of the major migrations in the 1200 and 1300s. The location is essentially on the boundary between the Mogollon (Mimbres), Hohokam (Salado) and Anasazi (Ancestral Puebloan) cultures. Each of those cultures has had an impact on the styles and designs of Acoma pottery, especially since modern potters have been getting the inspiration for many of their designs from pot shards they have found while walking on pueblo lands.

Francisco Vasquez de Coronado ascended the cliff to visit Acoma in 1540. He afterward wrote that he "repented having gone up to the place." But the Spanish came back later and kept coming back.

Around 1598 relations between the Spanish and the Acomas took a nasty turn with the arrival of Don Juan de Oñaté and the soldiers, settlers and Franciscan monks that accompanied him. After making the arduous ascent to the mesa top, de Oñaté decided to force the Acomas to swear loyalty to the King of Spain and to the Pope. When the Acomas realized what the Spanish meant by that, a group of Acoma warriors attacked a group of Spanish soldiers and killed 11 of them, including one of de Oñaté's nephews.

De Oñaté retaliated by attacking the pueblo. His troops burned most of it and killed more than 600 people. Another 500 people were imprisoned by the Spanish. Males between the ages of 12 and 25 were sold into slavery. 24 men over the age of 25 had their right foot amputated. Many of the women over the age of 12 were also forced into slavery. Most were parceled out among Catholic convents in Mexico City.

Two Hopi men were also captured at Acoma. The Spanish cut one hand off of each and sent them home to spread the word about Spain's resolve to subjugate the inhabitants of Nuevo Mexico. Spanish monks did make the trip a few years later but Spanish military made hardly an appearance in Hopiland.

When word of the massacre (and the punishments meted out after) got back to King Philip in Spain, he banished Don Juan de Oñaté from Nuevo Mexico. Some Acomas had escaped that fateful Spanish attack and returned to the mesa top in 1599 to begin rebuilding.

In 1620 a Royal Decree was issued which established civil offices in each pueblo and Acoma got its first governor. That didn't help the people any as those appointed to the government positions were also those most on the take with the Spanish authorities. By 1680, the situation between all of the pueblos and the Spanish had deteriorated to the point where the Acomas were extremely willing participants in the 1680 Pueblo Revolt.

After the successful Pueblo Revolt pushed the Spanish back to Mexico, refugees from other pueblos began to arrive at Acoma. Most feared the eventual Spanish return and probable reprisals. That strained the resources of Acoma badly. Then the Spanish returned in force and residents of the pueblo had to make a hard decision. Many of the refugees chose to try a peaceful solution: they relocated north to the ancient Laguna area and made peace with the Spanish as soon as they reappeared in the region. Acoma held out against the Spanish for awhile but soon capitulated.

Over the next 200 years, Acoma suffered from breakouts of smallpox and other European diseases to which they had no immunity. At times they would side with the Spanish against nomadic raiders from the Ute, Apache and Comanche tribes. Eventually New Mexico changed hands. Then the railroads arrived and Acoma became dependent on goods made in the outside world.

For many years the villagers were content on the mesa. Now most live in villages on the valley floor where water, electricity and other necessities are easily available. A few families still make their permanent home on the mesa top. The old pueblo is used almost exclusively these days for ceremonial celebrations.

A side view of Acoma Pueblo on top of its mesa
A view of the side of Acoma mesa in 1925 A view of Acoma mesa sticking up above the surrounding countryside from a distance Map showing the location of Acoma Pueblo relative to Albuquerque, Gallup and Santa Fe, New Mexico

For more info:
Acoma Pueblo at Wikipedia
Pueblo of Acoma official website
 Pueblos of the Rio Grande, Daniel Gibson, ISBN-13:978-1-887896-26-9, Rio Nuevo Publishers, © 2001
Acoma & Laguna Pottery, Rick Dillingham with Melinda Elliott, ISBN 0-933452-32-2, School of American Research Press, © 1992
Upper photo courtesy of Marshall Henrie, Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License

About Western Keresan Designs

Those who speak Western Keres have a plethora of traditional designs. A reason for that is the people of Acoma have been living and working in the same place for almost a thousand years. And they have been making and breaking pottery the whole time. The area of Laguna has been more or less populated for a similar amount of time and, when populated, the Lagunas moved around more than the Acomas.

Acoma and Laguna are located in the boundary area with Chaco Canyon influence to the north and Mimbres Valley influence to the south. Designs and techniques have been coming and going across the landscape for many years. Over time, broken potsherds covered with multiple designs have fallen to the ground everywhere, just waiting to be picked up by someone, have their designs revived and their constituents ground and mixed with fresh clay and be reborn as pots again.

In the 1950s, that started happening a lot, potsherds being picked up and their designs revived, that is. Many of those designs have since been traced back to artisans in the Mimbres Valley working pre-1150 CE. They had a unique perspective on the birds, animals, insects and people of their world, and used that perspective to draw and paint unique patterns. Many of those patterns are still being recreated on pottery across the Pueblo world, but especially at Acoma and Laguna. Central to the design palette are stories from the adventures of the Twin Warriors. While some Flower World iconography is also present in the Acoma design palette, there is extremely little from the kachina cults of the Hopi and Zuni.

One of the more recent traditional Acoma designs is the parrot holding a twig with berries in its claws. Often there is a rainbow above or below the parrot. Parrots are not natural in New Mexico, they had to have been imported. Before about 1450 CE, there was a trade in parrots and macaws through Paquimé to regions in the north. The remains of macaws have been pretty common but the remains of green parrots have only been recovered from three pueblos: Cicuyé, Paquimé and Grasshopper Pueblo in Arizona. The ancient-most Acoma parrot design has a Mimbres/Mogollon heritage while the parrot most painted today looks more like it came from an Amish trader's box. And it likely did.

With the arrival of Spanish colonists in New Mexico, pueblo potters changed their pottery to meet the demands of a new market. Their shapes and designs changed with that. Everything changed again with the arrival of Amish traders with their enameled cookware in the 1850s. The "new" Acoma parrot was pictured on the boxes those pots came in. The parrot came into being around 1880 and has been in use so long now it is considered "traditional."

Pottery was always in production at Acoma but from about 1600 to about 1950, it was heavily influenced by colonial shapes and designs. Eventually, the potters were reduced to producing items for the tourist trade to make ends meet, and that didn't go over so well either. Their own interest in making pottery fell off. Lucy Lewis, Jessie Garcia and Marie Z. Chino started decorating their pieces with their new interpretations of ancient Mimbres, Tularosa and Cibola designs in the 1920s and interest, both outside and inside the pueblo, grew again from there.

Laguna was impacted more heavily by the newcomers. Two Methodist missionaries married women in the pueblo and one of them shortly had himself elected President of the Pueblo. One of the first things he did was order the destruction of all the kivas on Laguna Pueblo land. That caused a schism and many Lagunas relocated to Isleta for a number of years (some of them are still there).

The Southern branch of the Transcontinental Railroad ran across Laguna Pueblo, and offered jobs to many of the men. That essentially ended the making of pottery by most tribal members. Then uranium was discovered under pueblo lands and more men went to work mining for that. Only a couple families passed the traditional knowledge down, until it eventually reached Evelyn Cheromiah. Nancy Winslow, an Anglo woman from Albuquerque, helped Evelyn obtain a grant to teach pottery making on the pueblo and a small revival started from there. Laguna potters, too, work their designs from designs they find on potsherds they find lying on the ground around the old pueblos. Their designs are very much like those of Acoma, usually just with more white space and bolder lines.

About Miniatures

Most people who have heard of it think miniature pottery has to be something new in the world of Native American pottery. In reality, archaeologists have found miniature pottery in the remains of ancient ruins in Chaco Canyon, Mesa Verde, across eastern Arizona, southern New Mexico and south to the Paquimé and Casas Grandes region in northern Mexico. Archaeologists working in the eastern US have found miniature pottery spread across Early Woodland Culture sites, too, dated up to 1700 years ago.

We have no idea as to why the ancients created miniature pottery but there's lots of speculation. Perhaps it was made as toys for children. Perhaps it was made by children learning to make pottery, and as their expertise grew, the size of their pieces grew, too. Perhaps it was made and placed in a firing pit as a good luck charm, hoping that other pots being fired in the pit would survive the firing process and not crack or break. Perhaps it was made for some ceremonial purpose we have no possibility of knowing. We do know that in North America, almost every pottery-making group of ancients made miniature pottery. They decorated it, too, just like the full size pottery the women of the time were making.

As the rebirth of traditionally made Native American pottery has unfolded over the last century, research into the ancient forms, styles and designs has also brought the miniature back into focus. There are more than a few potters these days making tiny gems again, similar to and, at the same time, more refined than the products of the potters of prehistory. And while some are still being made by children learning as they grow up, many more are being made by established adult potters. Some have made their entire careers around the making of miniatures while others sometimes make a few miniatures to complement the full range of forms and styles of full size pieces they make.

Since the advent of big trade fairs showcasing Native American pottery, the definition of what makes a miniature has evolved. In the beginning a miniature had no dimension larger than 2.25 inches. Then it was felt that that small a definition was too small: there was no competition because there were too few potters making pottery in that size range. Then one venue changed their definition to: no dimension larger than 4.25 inches, while another changed their definition to: no dimension larger than 3.25 inches. Competition for prizes in the different miniature styles rose immediately at both but it didn't answer the basic question: what is a miniature? As far as Thomas Natseway of Laguna Pueblo is concerned, a miniature has no dimension larger than 2.25 inches. And he's been making them smaller than that for more than 30 years.

Delores Sanchez Family Tree - Acoma Pueblo

Disclaimer: This "family tree" is a best effort on our part to determine who the potters are in this family and arrange them in a generational order. The general information available is questionable so we have tried to show each of these diagrams to living members of each family to get their input and approval, too. This diagram is subject to change should we get better info.


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