Rachel Aragon
Acoma
Acoma Parrot
6 1/2"
H x 7 1/4" D
Rachel Aragon was born in
1938 into the Acoma Pueblo. Rachel is a member of the Eagle Clan.
She was encouraged and inspired
to learn the art of working with clay at the age of 10 from her
mother, Lupe Aragon. Lupe shared with Rachel all the fundamentals
of hand coiling pottery using ancient traditional methods. Rachel
graduated from High School in 1958 and then began pursuing a
career in working with clay on a more professional level.
Rachel specializes in hand
coiled traditional fertility pottery. She gathers her clay from
within the Acoma Pueblo. Then, she soaks the clay, grinds the
clay, cleans the clay, hand mixes, hand coils, shapes, sands,
and hand paints the pottery, using natural pigments which she
boils together to produce the natural colors she paints with.
Then, she fires her pottery outdoors, with wood chips.
She is well known for her
light weight pottery and her beautiful hand painted designs.
Rachel enjoys complex patterns and often paints images of parrots,
flowers, deer with heart lines and spirals. She signs her pottery
as: Rachel Aragon, Acoma, N.M.
Rachel is related to: Mary
Trujillo (sister), Emma Chino (cousin), Marie Torivio (cousin),
Carol Loretto, and Geraldine Sando (nieces).
Her work is widely collected
and increasingly hard to find. She has won many awards for her
work at the Santa Fe Indian Market, the New Mexico State Fair
and the Gallup Indian Ceremonial and is considered one of today's
outstanding potters.
Publications:
-Southern Pueblo Pottery 2,000 Artist Biographies
Rachel holding one
of her earlier masterpieces
