Tonita Nampeyo
Village Wedding
6 1/2"
H x 5 1/4" D
Considered as the Matriarch
of the remaining Nampeyo family, Tonita is the eldest daughter
of Fannie Nampeyo, and grand-daughter to the legendary Nampeyo
who is credited as being instrumental in the revitalization of
Hopi polychrome pottery.
In the footsteps of her forebears,
Tonita stays true to her traditional roots, preferring to do
everything the "old way." Her clay is still dug from
deposits near her home. She still hand-coils and hand polishes
every piece she does. Tonita remains loyal to many of the original
Sikyatki ruins designs, as can be seen here in this beautiful
"migration pattern."
This piece is strikingly unique,
however, in that it incorporates the traditional shape of a wedding
vase, but depicts a village scene at the rim of the two spouts.
This contemporary feature is a departure for Tonita, and as a
result makes a piece like this even more rare and valuable. This
is truly one-of-a-kind.
Because the summer months
are a time when the village communities are brought together
for the close of the Kachina ceremonies and the beginning of
the new social cycle, the depiction of a village scene atop a
wedding vase is fitting. It symbolizes the unity felt by all,
just as the wedding vase symbolizes the unity between the bride
and her newly betrothed.
From where one stands at the
edge of Walpi, the tradional village at First Mesa, to the west
can be seen the rising terraces of Second Mesa and the villages
of Mishongnovi and Sipaulovi. Centuries of religious and political
differences have divided them. Perhaps a piece like this represents
an earnest prayer that someday the several factions which exist
among the Hopi will be brought together in peace and harmony.
Tonita is world-renown and
appears in nearly every publication dealing with Hopi pottery.
Her work has been exhibited in galleries and museums across the
globe, and she has shown and placed at nearly every major venue
throughout the Southwest.
Her work appears in Fourteen
Families in Pueblo Pottery by Rick Dillingham, The Art
of the Hopi by Jerry Jacka, and Hopi-Tewa Pottery: 500
Artists Biographies by Gregory Schaff as well as others.
