Louis Naranjo

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Image courtesy of the Ruth and Elmer Museum of Art at Hamilton College, Clinton, NY. Photo by J…
Louis Naranjo
Image courtesy of the Ruth and Elmer Museum of Art at Hamilton College, Clinton, NY. Photo by John Bentham. For educational purposes only.

Louis Naranjo

Native American [Cochiti Pueblo], 1932 - 1997
BiographyLouis Naranjo (August 17, 1932 - March 6, 1997) was born at Cochiti Pueblo. He learned pottery making from his mother Frances Suina and his wife Virginia Naranjo. He began his career as a potter late in life, after his wife, Virginia, had a stroke. (SOURCE: Adobe Gallery, Santa Fe, NM)

Louis Naranjo grew up in the pueblo of Cochiti, a small village in New Mexico where he learned how to make pottery from his mother. He worked with his wife, Virginia, creating figures and animals while they sat around their dining room table. They used clay from the hills around their home and applied clay slips and beeweed juice to create different colors. (SOURCE: Charles Rosenak, "The Storytellers," Indians of New Mexico, 1990; via the Smithsonian Museum of American Art, https://americanart.si.edu/artist/louis-naranjo-7470)
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