MIAC Presents Virtual Native Pottery Demonstration with Karen Abeita

January 26th, 2021

The Museum of Indian Arts & Culture (MIAC) invites you to virtually join potter Karen Abeita (Hopi-Tewa/Isleta Pueblo) on Wednesday, Feb. 10, at 10 a.m. MST for MIAC’s popular Native Pottery Demonstration series via Zoom. Please click here to register for this free event.

Abeita was immersed in pottery from an early age. Her grandmother, Mamie Nahoodyce, and several of Abeita’s aunts were well-known and respected potters. Her childhood friend, Fawn Navasie, showed her how to mold large pots, to fire clay using sheep manure, and to respect the clay and always pray. All of Abeita’s pottery is hand coiled, using only a piece of a gourd and her two hands as tools, and is painted using a yucca brush and mustard seed paint.

Abeita’s designs are usually duplicates of prehistoric pottery, mainly from the ancestral Hopi site of Sikyátki. She loves to stand on the highest point there and let her imagination take her back in time to when there was a village. “I spend hours and hours walking through the ruins looking at the shards and copying them into my sketchbook,” says Abeita. “Once I get pages filled with designs, I will then begin what I call a ‘shard pot.’ It will consist of several hundred designs, never the same size or shape. It is very time-consuming, usually taking me about three weeks of painting from sun up to sundown.”

Abeita is a past recipient of the Helen Naha Memorial Award for Best of Hopi Pots from the Southwestern Association for Indian Arts, their fellowship, and several blue and red ribbons for her work.
Abeita has also won numerous awards at the Heard Museum in Phoenix and the Haskell Indian Art Market in Lawrence, Kansas. She has been participating in the Santa Fe Indian Market for nearly 20 years.

MIAC’s Pottery Demonstration series has been on hiatus since February 2020. Stay tuned for details on upcoming demonstrations and other programs by following the MIAC Facebook page.

Date: Wednesday, February 10, 2021
Time: 10 a.m. MST
Registration Link: https://nmculture-org.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_Oseu5LZbTkGXKfitSfrsOg

About the Museum of Indian Arts & Culture
The Museum of Indian Arts & Culture is a division of the Department of Cultural Affairs, under the leadership of the Board of Regents for the Museum of New Mexico. Programs and exhibits are generously supported by the Museum of New Mexico Foundation and our donors. The mission of the Museum of Indian Arts & Culture/Laboratory of Anthropology is to serve as a center of stewardship, knowledge, and understanding of the artistic, cultural, and intellectual achievements of the diverse peoples of the Native Southwest. 

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