"The pottery I make is a collaborative work between myself and the clay. It was through unsuccessful attempts in my earlier years to produce such a pot that Clay Woman taught me patience. She tells me to go slow and create one coil at a time and allow that to stand and stiffen before I add another. I received her teachings in that way and, in order to produce that piece of artwork, it has taken numerous years of trial and error. Being attuned to Clay Woman's teachings, listening to it and feeling it within my heart, that is how I learned patience."

Preston Duwyenie was born in 1951 in Hotevilla, on Hopi Third Mesa in northeastern Arizona. The Hopi people have lived on Third Mesa for centuries but Hotevilla is a new pueblo, founded in the early 1900s. Preston told us he grew up surrounded with beauty. "Everyone has an art. My mother was a basket weaver, my father a Katsina carver. You grow up learning how to make art." Lomaiquilvaa (Carried in Beauty) is his Hopi name, given to him after his godmother carried him home asleep late in the evening after his initiation ceremony. That name has evolved into Preston's hallmark.

Preston earned his Bachelor of Fine Arts at the Institute of American Indian Arts (IAIA), then he did some Master of Fine Arts coursework at the Colorado State University. In 1988, he returned to Santa Fe to take a position as Professor of Traditional Pottery and Jewelry at IAIA. It was there that Preston met his wife, Debra. In 1996 he retired from his academic position to focus on his art full time.

Since the late 1980s, Preston has used micaceous clays and sterling silver inlays in creating most of his contemporary pieces. In the Shifting Sands Series, he was inspired by the image of fine sand transformed by wind or water into a series of concentric subtle ripples. To him, the silver represents the precious lifeblood of water while the pattern etched around the inlay represents the clouds and the water they contain. This is a silent Hopi prayer for water to always be in the Earth so that we may exist.

As a traditional potter producing contemporary styles and designs, Preston has exhibited at the Heard Museum Guild Indian Arts Fair & Market in Phoenix, the Colorado Indian Market in Denver, Santa Fe Indian Market and the Eight Northern Indian Pueblos Arts & Crafts Show. Preston has earned countless awards in the traditional and contemporary pottery divisions, including two Best of Shows from the Colorado Indian Market and one Best of Show from the Heard.

Preston told us he finds his inspiration in Nature and most enjoys making pots with shoulders, then decorating them with shifting sands designs. In his words: "I love the profession I'm in... love doing it."

Some Exhibits that Featured Preston's Work

• What's New in New: Selections from the Carol Warren Collection. Lloyd Kiva New Gallery, Museum of Indian Arts and Culture. Santa Fe, New Mexico. June 3, 2018 - February 26, 2019. Note: exhibiting works include art by artists Tony Abeyta, Autumn Borts-Medlock, Preston Duwyenie, Tammy Garcia, Dan Namingha, Les Namingha, Jody Naranjo, Roxanne Swentzell, and Tito Naranjo
• Elegance from Earth: Hopi Pottery. Heard Museum. Phoenix, Arizona. March 24, 2012 - April 6, 2014
• Artistic Excellence: The Heard Museum Guild Indian Fair & Market Celebrates 60 Years. Heard Museum. Phoenix, Arizona. February 2, 2018 - August 31, 2018
• Choices and Change: American Indian Artists in the Southwest. Heard Museum North. Scottsdale, Arizona. June 30, 2007 - 2012
• Our Stories: American Indian Art and Culture in Arizona. Heard Museum West. Surprise, Arizona. July 26, 2006 - 2009
• Breaking the Surface: Carved Pottery Techniques and Designs. Heard Museum. Phoenix, Arizona. October 2004 - October 2005
• Jewels of the Southwest. Arizona Historical Society Museum. Tempe, Arizona. February 8, 2002 - April 28, 2002
• Remembering Our Indian School Days: The Boarding School Experience 1879 - Present. Heard Museum. Phoenix, Arizona. November 2000 - 2005
• Hopi Market Place. Museum of Northern Arizona. Flagstaff, Arizona. July 4-5, 1998
• Red Earth Fine Arts Festival Competition. Myriad Plaza. Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. June 1993
• The City of Phoenix Native American Art Collection. Phoenix City Hall. Phoenix, Arizona. 1993
• Celebrate the Spirit: Contemporary Native American Art. Mathes Cultural Center. Felicita Foundation for the Arts. Escondido, California. October 21, 1985 - November 30, 1985

Some of the Awards Won by Preston

• 2023 Santa Fe Indian Market, Classification II-D, Category 801 - Sgraffito, any form, Second Place, a collaboration with his wife, Debra
• 2023, Santa Fe Indian Market, Classification II-D, Category 806 - With added elements (like beads, feathers, stones, etc), any form, First Place, a collaboration with his wife, Debra
• 2020 Heard Museum Guild Indian Arts Fair & Market: Classification II - Pottery: Honorable Mention for Classification II. Awarded for collaborative artwork with Debra Duwyenie: "Turtles"
• 2019 Santa Fe Indian Market, Classification II - Pottery, Division D - Contemporary pottery, any form or design, using Native materials with or without added decorative elements, traditional firing techniques, Category 801 - Sgraffitto, any form: First Place shared with Debra Duwyenie
• 2019 Santa Fe Indian Market, Classification II - Pottery, Division D - Contemporary pottery, any form or design, using Native materials with or without added decorative elements, traditional firing techniques, Category 803 - Unpainted, any form: First Place
• 2019 Heard Museum Guild Indian Arts Fair & Market, Classification II - Pottery, Division E - Any design or form with native materials, kiln fired pottery: First Place. Awarded for artwork: "Twin Clouds"
• 2019 Heard Museum Guild Indian Arts Fair & Market: Judge's Award - Joe Baker. Awarded for artwork: "Shards"
• 2018 Santa Fe Indian Market, Classification II - Pottery, Division D, Contemporary Pottery, Any Form or Design, Using Native Materials with or without Added Decorative Elements, Traditional Firing Techniques, Category 806 - With added elements (like beads, feathers, stones, etc.), any form: First Place
• 2017 Santa Fe Indian Market, Classification II - Pottery, Division D - Contemporary Pottery, any form or design, using Native materials with or without added decorative elements, traditional firing techniques: Best of Division
• 2017 Santa Fe Indian Market, Classification II - Pottery, Division D - Contemporary Pottery, any form or design, using Native materials with or without added decorative elements, traditional firing techniques, Category 806 - With added elements (like beads, feathers, stones, etc), any form: First Place
• 2017 Heard Museum Guild Indian Arts Fair & Market, Classification II Pottery, Division G - Pottery miniatures not to exceed three (3) inches at its greatest dimension: Second Place. Awarded for collaborative artwork with Debra Duwyenie: "Turtles and Fish"
• 2016 Heard Museum Guild Indian Arts Fair & Market, Classification II - Pottery, Division C - Traditional - native clay, hand built, carved: Second Place collaboration with Debra Duwyenie
• 2015 Heard Museum Guild Indian Arts Fair & Market, Classification II - Pottery, Division E - Non-traditional design or form with native materials: Second Place
• 2014 Heard Museum Guild Indian Arts Fair & Market, Classification II - Pottery, Division G - Pottery miniatures, not to exceed 3 inches at its greatest dimension: First Place collaboration with Debra Duwyenie
• 2011 Heard Museum Guild Indian Arts Fair & Market, Classification II - Pottery, Division G - Miniatures: First Place with Debra Duwyenie
• 2010 Heard Museum Guild Indian Arts Fair & Market, Classification II - Pottery, Division E - Non-traditional design or form with native materials: First Place
• 2009 Heard Museum Guild Indian Fair & Market, Classification II - Pottery, Division G - Pottery Miniatures not to exceed 3" at its greatest dimension: First Place collaboration with Debra Duwyenie
• 2000 Santa Fe Indian Market, Classification II - Pottery, Division A - Traditional Unpainted Pottery, Category 804 - Taos, Picuris and Similar styles: Second Place
• 2000 Santa Fe Indian Market, Classification II - Pottery, Division H - Non-traditional pottery, Category 1507 - Bowls, unpainted other than stoneware: Third Place
• 1999 Santa Fe Indian Market, Classification II - Pottery, Division H - Non-traditional, Category 1507 - Bowls: First Place
• 1999 Heard Museum Guild Indian Arts Fair & Market, Classification VII - Pottery, Division D - Non-traditional/wheel thrown/glazed/commercial clay: Best of Division
• 1998 Hopi Market Place, Pottery Division, Plainware - Contemporary, non-traditional: First Place. Museum of Northern Arizona. Flagstaff, Arizona
• 1997 Santa Fe Indian Market: Challenge Award in Non-traditional Pottery
• 1997 Santa Fe Indian Market, Classification II - Pottery, Division A - Traditional unpainted pottery, Category 804 - Taos, Picuris & similar styles: First Place
• 1997 Santa Fe Indian Market, Classification II - Pottery, Division H - Non-traditional any forms using non-traditional materials or techniques, Category 1507 - Bowls: First Place
• 1997 Heard Museum Guild Indian Arts Fair & Market, Classification VII - Pottery: Best of Classification. Awarded for painting: "Shifting Sands - Phase Four"
• 1997 Heard Museum Guild Indian Arts Fair & Market, Classification VII - Pottery: Best of Classification, Division B - Traditional/Native Clay/Hand Built/Unpainted: Best of Division. Awarded for painting: "Shifting Sands - Phase Four"
• 1997 Heard Museum Guild Indian Arts Fair & Market. Judge's Choice Award - Dennis Lyon. Awarded for painting: "Shifting Sands - Phase Four"
• 1997 Heard Museum Guild Indian Arts Fair & Market. Judge's Choice Award - Georgia Loloma. Awarded for painting: "Shifting Sands - Phase Four"
• 1996 Santa Fe Indian Market, Classification II - Pottery, Division A - Traditional unpainted pottery, Category 805 - Other plain ware: First Place
• 1996 Santa Fe Indian Market, Classification II - Pottery, Division H - Non-traditional any forms, using non-traditional materials or techniques, Category 1507 - Bowls, unpainted, other than stoneware: First Place
• 1996 Heard Museum Guild Indian Arts Fair & Market: Best of Show. Awarded for artwork: "Shifting Sands". Shared Best of Show honors with Barbara Teller Ornelas
• 1996 Heard Museum Guild Indian Arts Fair & Market, Classification VII - Pottery: Best of Classification. Awarded for artwork: "Shifting Sands"
• 1996 Heard Museum Guild Indian Arts Fair & Market, Classification VII - Pottery, Division B - Wheel-thrown, glazed, non-native traditional firing: Best of Division. Awarded for artwork: "Shifting Sands"
• 1994 Santa Fe Indian Market, Classification II - Pottery, Division B - Traditional pottery, undecorated, Category 901 - jars up to 9" tall: First Place
• 1993 Santa Fe Indian Market, Classification I - Jewelry, Division G - Metal items with or without stones, Category 701 - Boxes, canteens & closed containers: Third Place
• 1993 Santa Fe Indian Market, Classification II - Pottery, Division J - Non-traditional, any forms using non-traditional materials or techniques, Category 1604 - Bowls: First Place
• 1993 Santa Fe Indian Market, Classification II - Pottery, Division J - Non-traditional, any forms using non-traditional materials or techniques, Category 1612 - Miscellaneous: Second Place
• 1993 Red Earth Fine Arts Festival and Competition, Pottery Division - Non-traditional pottery: First Place. Myriad Plaza. Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
• 1992 Santa Fe Indian Market: Most Creative Design in any Classification
• 1992 Santa Fe Indian Market, Classification I - Jewelry, Division C - Non-traditional metal jewelry with or without stones, Category 306 - Matched sets: Third Place
• 1992 Santa Fe Indian Market, Classification I - Jewelry, Division G - Metal items with or without stones, Category 703 - Bowls, jars, plates & ashtrays: Second Place
• 1992 Santa Fe Indian Market, Classification II - Pottery, Division H - Non-traditional pottery, new forms using traditional materials and techniques, Category 1504 - Bowls: Second Place
• 1992: 20th Annual Artist and Craftsman Show, Division - Pottery: Best of Show. Eight Northern Indian Pueblos Council. San Juan Pueblo, New Mexico
• 20th Annual Artist and Craftsman Show, Division - Pottery, Division - Jewelry, Up and Coming Artist in Jewelry: First Place. Eight Northern Indian Pueblos Council. San Juan Pueblo, New Mexico. July 1992.
• 1992 Heard Museum Guild Indian Arts Fair & Market, Classification VII - Pottery, Non-traditional methods: Honorable Mention
• 1991 Santa Fe Indian Market, Classification I - Jewelry, Division C- Non-traditional metal jewelry with or without stones, Category 308 - Handmade items: Second Place
• 1991 Santa Fe Indian Market, Classification II - Pottery, Division D - Traditional pottery, carved, Category 1103 - Bowls (up to 8 inches in diameter): Second Place
• 1991 Santa Fe Indian Market, Classification II - Pottery, Division H - Non-traditional pottery, new forms using traditional materials and technology: Best of Division
• 1991 Santa Fe Indian Market, Classification II - Pottery, Division H - Non-traditional pottery, new forms using traditional materials and techniques, Category 1503 - Jars: First Place
• 1991 Santa Fe Indian Market, Classification II - Pottery, Division J- Non-traditional, any forms using non-traditional materials or techniques, Category 1611 - Miscellaneous: Second Place
• 1991 Santa Fe Indian Market, Classification V - Weaving and Baskets, Division B - Non-traditional weaving, textiles, attire and miscellaneous items, Category 2604 - Purses, pillows, wall hangings: First Place
• 1989 Santa Fe Indian Market, Classification II - Pottery, Division G - Traditional pottery, Category 1209 - Other bowl forms: First Place
• 1986 Santa Fe Indian Market, Classification II - Pottery, Division H - Non-traditional pottery, new forms and innovations, Category 1303 - Jars and vases unpainted: Second Place
• 1986 Santa Fe Indian Market, Classification III - Paintings, drawings and prints (hand pulled), Division C - Painting, any style, Category 1704 - Drawings: First Place
• 1986 Colorado Winter Indian Market, Rocky Mountain Rendezvous of Tribal Nations, Contemporary Indian Art: Best of Show. Boulder, Colorado
• 1985 Santa Fe Indian Market, Classification II - Pottery: Best of Classification
• 1985 Santa Fe Indian Market, Classification II - Pottery, Division H - Non-traditional pottery: First Place
• 1985 Colorado Winter Indian Market, Rocky Mountain Rendezvous of Tribal Nations: Best of Show. Awarded for Pottery "Earth in Balance". Boulder, Colorado
• 1985 Colorado Winter Indian Market, Rocky Mountain Rendezvous of Tribal Nations, Sculpture Division - Mixed Media: First Place. Boulder, Colorado
• 1985 Colorado Winter Indian Market, Rocky Mountain Rendezvous of Tribal Nations, Pottery Division - Best of Division
• 1985 Colorado Winter Indian Market, Rocky Mountain Rendezvous of Tribal Nations, Pottery Division, Contemporary Carved Pottery: First Place. Boulder, Colorado
• 1980 Gallup Inter-Tribal Ceremonial, Sculpture: Third Place. Red Rock State Park. Gallup, New Mexico

The Hopi People

Walpi, as seen by Ansel Adams in 1941

Looking across Tewa Village to First Mesa

The Hopi People and Their Pottery

Pottery was being made in the area of the Hopi mesas before generational migrants from the area of central Mexico began to arrive in the 600's. Those migrants brought a much better ceramic technology with them. They also brought a whole new design vocabulary, architectural advancements, more defined rituals and better seeds, along with other agricultural advancements. They spread out across the Southwest between the Colorado River and the Rio Grande, from the Chihuahua and Sonora deserts north to the Great Salt Lake, and they multiplied. The weather of this countryside was very fickle, though, and they had to discover new ways to store their food and keep it good for years. The best tool for preserving things was pottery. Then they began decorating their pottery with their prayers for the seed within, and for the survival of their people.

For hundreds of years those designs were repetitive geometrics, in black-on-white or black-on-gray-white bisques, most matte but more and more polished as time went on. In the 900's, from the south again, figures in black-on-white were introduced. Then came figures and designs in red-and-black-on-white. Then came figures and designs in various combinations of red, black and white on various backgrounds. Each step in the development of decorative and color schemes is reflective of experiential religious developments within one clan or another, one pueblo or another. A lot of what flowered into what we know now as "Sikyátki style and design" was developed in bits and pieces along the rim of Antelope Mesa. It took the experience of Sikyátki to put it all together. Just as the design palette of Sikyátki reached its peak, the village's chief determined they had strayed too far from the traditionally conservative Hopi path and they needed to be put to death for it. He arranged with the elders of Walpi and other villages to have the deed done and sometime in 1625 it was completed. Everyone in the village was killed except for a few ritual specialists who were saved for their spiritual value.

From a mural found at Awatovi

The styles and designs of Sikyátki lived on on some Awatovi pottery for a few years but the entire design palette changed after the Spanish arrived in force in 1629. San Bernardo Polychrome came into production almost immediately with the reduction in labor force as so many of the Awatovis were forced to serve the priests and build a mission. The design palette changed, too, when all the kachina designs were forced out by the Franciscan priests. Almost everything changed again with the Pueblo Revolt of 1680. There was a general return to themes prevalent before the Spanish arrived across the entire Southwest, except by then most potters were firing their pots using sheep, cow or horse manure. Around the Hopi mesas, a merging of designs and supernaturals with the layouts from the San Bernardo and Sikyatki phases happened. Some archaeologists have termed the pottery that was produced for 100 years after the Pueblo Revolt as "Payupki phase." It faded out around 1780, about the same time the last of the Tiwas and Keresans returned to the Rio Grande Valley from the village of Payupki on Second Mesa. After that came the phases of Polacca Polychrome, including the white-slipped years after the times of drought and disease in the 1800s that were spent at Zuni.

By the mid-1800s, the Hopi pottery tradition had been almost completely abandoned, its utilitarian purposes taken over by cheap enamelware brought in by Anglo traders. Hopi pottery production sputtered along until the 1880's when one woman, Nampeyo of Hano, almost single-handedly revived it. Nampeyo lived in Hano on First Mesa and was inspired by pot sherds found among the nearby ruins of the ancient village of Sikyátki. Like every other potter around First Mesa at the time, Nampeyo was producing jars, bowls and canteens, often with one surface slipped white and decorated with designs in black-and/or-red. At the urging of Anglo traders' Alexander Stephen and Thomas Varker Keam, she began experimenting with polishing the surface of pieces coiled entirely of Jeddito yellow clay and then painting her designs directly on that. Today, credit is given to Nampeyo for fully reviving the Sikyátki style. She was so good that Jesse Walter Fewkes, the first archaeologist to formally excavate Sikyátki, was concerned that her creations would shortly become confused with those made hundreds of years previously.

Sikyátki pottery shapes are very distinctive: flattened jars with wide shoulders; low, open serving bowls decorated inside; seed jars with small openings and flat tops; painting methods of splattering and stippling and very distinctive designs. The Sikyátki style seems to have evolved as various Zuni-, Keres- and Towa-speaking potters came together with Water Clan potters from the Hohokam areas of southern Arizona and northern Mexico, and they began working with clays found in the nearby Jeddito valley area. Over the years, other clans came to the area and made their own contributions to what we now refer to as "Sikyátki Polychrome." According to Jesse Walter Fewkes, that merging of styles, techniques and designs created some of the finest ceramics ever produced in prehistoric North America.

Today's Hopi Pottery

Most Hopi pottery is unmistakable in its shapes, colors and designs. The Hopis are blessed with multiple excellent clay sources, each offering a different deep color after polishing and firing. Most Hopi pottery uses a buff, red, white or yellow clay body. Some kachina carvers make pottery and sometimes carve and etch their surfaces. Most Hopi potters, though, form their pieces and paint their decorations using colors derived from boiled-down plants, watered-down clay and from crushed minerals.

Much of the symbology painted on Hopi pottery is themed with "bird elements:" eagle and parrot tails, feathers, beaks and wings, and with katsinam (images of their gods) and permutations of migration patterns. Many Hopi, Hopi-Tewa and Tewa potters are members of the Corn Clan and their annual religious cycle revolves around the seasons of corn. The vast majority of today's Hopi pottery shapes and the designs painted on them are obvious descendants of the work of potters who existed 200-and-more years ago.

The above paragraph applies mostly to potters from the vicinity of First Mesa. The few potters from Second and Third Mesas seem to derive their design palettes from farther back in time, to the geometric designs, patterns and figures of the rock art prevalent before the advent of the katsinam, and the emergence of the Medicine, Sacred Clown and Warrior societies 800 years ago.

The view south from near Old Oraibi

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