American Indian Artist: Joseph Lonewolf and Grace Medicine Flower

JOSEPH LONEWOLF GRACE MEDICINE FLOWER

The Pueblo Indians have been known for their fine pottery for more than a millennium, and Joseph Lonewolf and his sister Grace Medicine Flower were born with that artistic heritage. They use neither wheel, nor kiln, nor store-bought clay; they reject all modern technology; and yet they create gems of pottery that are prized by collectors throughout the world. Staying within the bounds of traditional work, the master craftsmanship of Lonewolf and Medicine Flower has advanced far beyond that of other fine Indian potters. Each piece is fashioned with delicacy and meticulous care. The designs are not sketched on the pot or on paper first, but rather worked and etched freehand directly onto the pot. No design is ever duplicated.

Unlike his sister, who decided to devote her life to potterymaking when she was in her early twenties, Lonewolf didn't decide to become a full-time pottery-maker until he was thirtynine, and a back injury prevented him from continuing his career as a journeyman machinist. “For many years before I decided to devote my life to the clay,” says Lonewolf, “I had visions and dreams of the pots I would create. There is really nothing new in what I do. I have simply re-discovered some of the secrets known to my ancestors, the Mimbres People, nine or ten centuries ago. I studied the museum collections and the extensive private collections of Mimbres pottery, and I use some of the same colors now, that the ancients did then. I feel that I have become the instrument through which my ancient clansmen have passed on their dead knowledge. They direct my hands and head when I work those envisioned symbols into my pots.” Lonewolf can spend from two to three years from the original concept of the design, until the final firing of a single pot. He envisions every detail in his mind before any actual work takes place. He has incorporated a variety of colors, that rival nature, into his work using reds, oranges, yellows, greens, blues, purples, siennas, bufis, browns, and even an iridescent orange-gray. He and his family have found these new color sources of clays and slips on family outings, and their locations are guarded secrets.

The entire family believes that the success of their work is due to their deep religious beliefs in the Pueblo deities. “Our religion is a very private and sacred part of our family's lives,” says Lonewolf, “We believe the clay is a living thing because it comes from Mother Earth, a living thing. I pray to her, talk to her, and ask her to guide me before I take the clay from her.

“Working with clay requires feeling and patience,” continues Lonewolf, “Regardless of how much time I spend on a pot, if one hairline crack appears in the very last step, the firing, I know that spiritually I have done something wrong. I haven't kept the faith. The pot must be destroyed, and all the work has been in vain.”

James McGrath has written:

The pot is the earth and holds our ways we will show you some of our ways that you will learn more about the earth we will not show you some of our ways because they are very special to us.

Joseph Lonewolf was born Joseph Tafoya, January 26, 1932, in Santa Clara Pueblo, New Mexico. As a child he learned beadwork, drawing, painting, woodworking, and pottery molding. His grandparents taught him the stories and legends of his people. It was from these stories and legends that he learned about the beginnings of the Tewa world the water serpent who separates the water creatures from the land animals, yet oversees them all the importance of dragonflies and wolves the duties of the people to Mother Earth about the buffalo and the bluejay and all the other creatures he so masterfully incorporates into his designs.

He learned ceremonial dances which he still does today. “The buffalo dance used to be a thanksgiving dance after a successful hunt; nowadays I regard it as giving thanks for a good year. When I am no longer able to do it, it may not be done again. But then, my son or sons-in-law may adapt their own versions of it. As in our pottery, we never copy each other's styles in this family. We each have our own distinctive, immediately-recognized methods.” Grace Medicine Flower was born Grace Tafoya, in Santa Clara Pueblo, December 13, 1938. She began her career as a potter in 1963, and had almost meteoric success. Although she had no formal art training, the Tafoya family was considered to be one of the most talented of the Pueblo potterymakers and those practices instilled by her parents and grandparents of the ancient art were all the background she needed. Her own unique artistic ability was quickly recognized.

Although she has perfected her own style, Medicine Flower still follows the traditional procedures used by generations of potters before her. She smooths the wet coils of clay into the desired form, allows it to dry slowly, applies a slip of thinner red clay and then meticulously polishes the piece. The polishing stone is one of the most important tools she uses. Some of the stones are passed down from generation to generation, and they are never loaned or borrowed. In order to pay homage to the contents it will enclose, the prerequisite is that each piece must be beautiful.

At all times a water jar must be beautiful because it will hold the life water carries.

At all times a food bowl must be beautiful because it will hold what gives life to us.

From the old days these life truths come to us today and we must pause in our migrations to honor them and to practice them.

Medicine Flower's pottery forms range from tiny squat seed bowls, to large globular water jars, to tall graceful bottles.

She has won more than two dozen major awards, but her biggest thrill was in February, 1974, when she was chosen as one of a group of twenty-eight Hopi and Pueblo potters selected to go to Washington, D.C., and be honored at the White House. On May 11, 1974, she was honored once again when an exhibition opened at the Maxwell Museum of Anthropology at the University of New Mexico, entitled "7 Families in Pueblo Pottery." It included pottery examples by and biographical information on the most distinguished Indian potters. Grace Medicine Flower and forty of her relatives were represented in the exhibition.

A combination of the right ingredients have helped to distinguish Lonewolf and Medicine Flower in their chosen field. Their mother, Agapita Silva Tafoya, was a gifted and respected artist before her death. Their father, Camilio Sunflower Tafoya, was instrumental in re-establishing and emphasizing the importance and aesthetic value of the ancient art. In addition to producing some of the first Santa Clara Pueblo carved black pottery, Camilio established his hallmark in brick-red clay pots, much coveted by collectors today. Their feeling and sensitivity for the clay and the symbols seems to have been inherited. James McGrath captures their special charisma in his poetry: Let us migrate together toward making a round pot called earth — we shall migrate in a circle — through all the particles of dust, falling softness of snow, through the drops of rain and the pressure of sun — we shall migrate over the bridge called past and tradition into the mysterious actions of today.

In our migrations we arrange ourselves about the river. In our migrations we arrange ourselves about the high rocks above the river. In our migrations we arrange ourselves in the village near the river.

When we become pots we see quietly the water we see quietly the stoneness we are touched by grasses sharp grasses soft water algae dancing water reflections. Sometimes we blush.

Joseph Lonewolf, Grace Medicine Flower, Camilio Sunflower Tafoya One of us works through a sharp path of design and pattern: sharp and geometric like the veins in stones, cactus ribs, tree limbs, water ripples like skin. These are signs of movements in our migration.

And the incisions we make in our clay bodies are serpents to swim in the waters, birds and insect to fly above the stones, migrating without our help.

And the incisions we make in our clay bodies are corns to sweeten the earth, animals to drink the waters.

And sometimes we put on our pots the colors of the sagebrush and the cloud blues and deer browns so they will remain with the earth and remind us to dance like the deer like the crickets like the plants like the bear migrating. like the sagebrush on the hill like the deer on the mountain like the dragonflies on the water like crickets on the rocks migrating.

Like the incisions in the earth made by the river Like the incisions in the rocks made by winter ice Like the incisions in our fields made by corn roots Like the incisions in the hills made by deep shadows We are migrating together with my river my winter ice my corn root. We have become a guardian. Thank you.