The Worlds of P'otsunu; Geronima Cruz Montoya of San Juan Pueblo
Mary Shapiro (Maps), Jeanne Shutes (Photographs) Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1996. First Edition [stated], presumed first printing. Hardcover. Includes Acknowledgments, Introduction: Narrative Content, Context, and Structure; At the Center of the Earth: Childhood in San Juan; A Day in the Wagon: The Santa Fe Indian School; True Tribal Traditions: The Early Years of the Studio; The Talent That Was There: Family and Teaching; No Place for Us: The Closing of the Studio; a Good and Long Life: The Pueblo Ceremonial; After the Rain: Adult Education and the Crafts Cooperative; Pretty Rare Objects: Painting; Too Much to Do: Later Years. Also contains Afterword: Revisiting; Appendix: Related Studies; Genealogy; References; Index. Color plates following pages 52. Topics covered include Tewa Indians, Indian artists, and San Juan Pueblo. From the age of eight, Jeanne Shutes was fascinated by photography and photographed schoolmates and pets with a celluloid camera. She went on to own many cameras and more than 90 of her photographs appear in The Worlds of P'otsunu, the biography of a Native American woman artist she would later co-author with Jill Mellick, Ph.D. Jill Mellick is a Jungian-oriented clinical psychologist, expressive arts therapist, researcher and author; and a founding member of the International Expressive Arts Therapy Association (IEATA). Mellick's research has included dreams,[8][9][10][11][12] creative expression[13][14][15][16] for personal growth and development, and Pueblo Indian art and artists. Gerónima Cruz Montoya (Potsunu) (September 22, 1915 – January 2, 2015) was an Ohkay Owingeh Pueblo artist and educator from New Mexico. She taught Native American artists at the Studio at the Santa Fe Indian School. Her Pueblo name is "Potsunu", meaning "shell", and it is with this name that she signs her work. Her mother was a well respected potter and it was from her that Montoya learned the basics. She then studied at the Santa Fe Indian School with Dorothy Dunn, from which she graduated as the valedictorian in her class in 1935, and at Claremont College. Montoya taught painting at the Santa Fe Indian School from 1937 until 1961. While Dorothy Dunn was known for developing the Studio program at the Indian School, 1932–37, Montoya was the first Native American to teach painting there for over 24 years. For her work as both teacher and painter, Montoya was awarded the 1994 Art and Cultural Achievement Award by the National Museum of the American Indian. In 1963 Montoya started an art education program at Ohkay Owingeh and in 1968 she founded the Oke'Oweege Artistic Cooperative there. Montoya died on January 2, 2015, at the age of 99. The inspiring story of Geronima Montoya, artist, educator, and San Juan Pueblo cultural leader, begins in northern New Mexico and culminates at the Smithsonian Art and Cultural Achievement Award ceremony in 1994. Like many other Native American children of the 1920s, Montoya became a boarding student at the Santa Fe Indian School, where assimilation to American culture was a primary goal. She discovered her love of painting while studying under Dorothy Dunn, who heavily influenced Pueblo Indian easel painting. Succeeding Dunn as the head of the controversial Studio, she later went on to obtain a college degree, create an adult education program fro the northern Pueblo villages, and found the first Native American crafts cooperative. Through this period of cultural and political change Montoya has been sustained by Pueblo and Catholic religious and ceremonial life. Shutes and Mellick tell her story in her own words, gathered from 17 years of interviews and friendship. The book is enriched by period photographs of village and school life, letters between Montoya and Dunn, and photographs of Montoya's art. Condition: Very good / Very good.
Keywords: Tewa Indians, Indian Artists, San Juan Pueblo, Teaching, Studio, Adult Education, Crafts Cooperative, Dorothy Dunn, Ceremonial, Exhibits, Claremont College, Oke Oweenege, Santa Fe Indian School, Mary Shapiro
ISBN: 0826316433
[Book #82120]
Price: $65.00