Nolan Youvella
First Mesa
6" H
x 4 1/2" D
Born in 1970 to Wally Youvella
Sr. and Iris Polacca Nampeyo, Nolan Youvella has taken up the
craft of his heritage in typical Nampeyo fashion: original. He
is corn clan of the Tewa village at Hano, First Mesa on the Hopi
Indian reservation.
Nolan traces his roots through
his mother, back to his grandmother Fannie Nampeyo, and once
more to his great grandmother, Nampeyo. Their blood flows through
his veins, as well as their creative inspiration.
Nolan first began his pottery
making journey at age eleven. Following more closely in the footsteps
of his mother, but also influenced by his father, as well as
his uncle, Tom Polacca, Nolan produces a type of pottery known
as appliqued buffware.
It has a characteristic very
similar to that of his mother's pottery. The surfaces are always
highly polished and the natural color of the clay is allowed
to shine through. However, he has incorporated the sgraffito
techniques of his uncle in etching Hopi symbols on the walls
of his work.
Most recently, Nolan has graduated
into the applique work that depicts various village scenes which
are raised up off the surface of the pottery in a detailed fashion.
Here you can see each tiny brick re-created in the pueblo landscape
and architecture.
The piece is titled "First
Mesa," and appropriately so. The front panel of the pottery
depicts a typical First Mesa village, with the stone walled pueblos
and terraced housing. In a unique twist, Nolan has also included
the mesa trails which lead up and around the traditional villages.
These trails descend from
the base of the village from the central Kiva area, and wrap
around to the back - there again depicting a relief carved dwelling,
with a window that peers into the center of the pottery.
Nolan's work appears in nearly
every major publication on Hopi pottery including Hopi-Tewa
Pottery: 500 Artist Biographies, by Gregory Schaff; Fourteen
Families of Pueblo Pottery by Rick Dillingham; Nampeyo:
Legacy of a Master Pottery by Mary Ellen Blair; and Art
of the Hopi by Jerry and Lois Jacka, as well as others.
