Jacob Koopee was born March
31, 1970. He is the great-great grandson of Nampeyo; great-grandson
of Nellie Nampeyo Douma; grandson of Marie Koopee, and the son
of Jacob Koopee, Sr. (Tewa) and Georgia Dewakuku Koopee.
In 1996, at the age of 26,
Jake was awarded Best of Show, Committee's Choice, Best Traditional
Pottery, at the Museum of Northern Arizona. He has successfully
participated in and won awards at many Markets since then - including
back-to-back "Best of Show" awards at both the Heard
Museum and Santa Fe Indian Market 2005!
Jacob appears in several major
publications on Hopi pottery including Hopi-Tewa Pottery:
500 Artist Biographies by Gregory Schaff (p. 59), and The
Art of the Hopi by Jerry and Lois Jacka (pp. 118, 126).
He loves to base his work
on old Sikyaki designs. Jake reports, "My Aunt Dextra (Quotskuyva)
inspired me." Jake is a young man with extraordinary talent.
He creates some of the largest hand coiled, open fired pieces
of pottery at Hopi.
He has signed with his hallmark
Kokopelli and last name Koopee.
Jacob is proud of his adherence
to traditional methods which always produce a one-of-a-kind pottery,
with its own unique character and finish. In Hopi culture, nothing
is ever "perfect," and that's just the way he wants
it.
