Collections Spotlight with Larson Goldtooth and Colleen Lucero

During the 2020 COVID-19 lockdown and through the reopening afterward, the Coe Center partnered with First American Art Magazine to present an interactive Zoom series in which Native artists discussed artworks in the Coe Collections. Collections Spotlight brought deep dives into objects from the Coe collection to the public from the artist’s perspective. These events were free and open to the public.

Colleen Lucero (Hopi) is the managing director of the Hopivewat Learning Center, she has also contributed to exhibits at the Tucson Museum of Art and the Maxwell Museum of Anthropology. Lucero holds a BFA in Museum Studies from the Institute of American Indian Arts.

Larson Goldtooth (Hopi-Tewa) is a potter who has been creating for more than twenty-eight years. His work is widely known across the Southwest, and in 2002, he won first place at the Santa Fe Indian Market.

Goldtooth says this could be a tourist piece; usually, they would have a hole poked in it to hang it using a nail or string. He notes people traveling and the contact being made around this time. He also points out the colors, such as the red and yellow, that had darkened. Lucero adds that many pieces were commissioned, adding that people would suggest what they like aesthetically more than for utilitarian uses.

Lucero brings to our attention the stepped cloud or water design on the border, which she notes is unusual and beautiful. Goldtooth agrees and shares how one of his relatives would use dots to start their designs and then freehand the rest, a similar process to how the designs on the bowl are created. He notes the tadpoles on the rim, symbolizing water, and the larger bird design.

They then discuss the pigments used, which are wild spinach and other materials cleaned and boiled until reduced, then wrapped in corn. He mentions that sheep manure would have started to be used around this time, replacing lignite coal. He goes on to say that Nampeyo would charcoal copy designs while her husband was helping excavate archaeological areas, take the designs home, and modify them. He mentions that process feels similar to what is done today, through artists referencing older designs from books and pottery publications and sometimes finding sherds on hikes.

Goldtooth says the design is a traditional Thunderbird design, which consists of a man, a woman, and a central flower with bird designs. Larson points out the stipples used in the flower design, which traditionally would have been done with yucca points but are now made using matchsticks. The red-painted area is polished. When first applied, the slip is yellow and layered with paint, so when fired, it turns red. It is a classic vase design.

Lucero talks about the abstractness of the design, its simplicity and elegance, and the linework. She points out the design on the side, and Goldtooth notes how contemporary it looks. To him, the designs look like feathers, which Lucero says may relate to incoming Spanish pottery designs, that is sometimes be incorporated.