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John Montoya
Sandia Pueblo
John Montoya
John Montoya was born into Sandia Pueblo in 1960. He had a job painting ceramics while in high school and that started him down the path of making pottery but after high school, he gave four years to the US Navy. Then he returned to Sandia.
He got interested in the traditional ways of making pottery but by then, the Sandia pottery tradition had almost been erased. He approached a potter of another pueblo with a gift of tobacco in hand but the potter refused to accept it saying, "Clay Mother is the best teacher." That forced John to develop his own style without outside influence.
He started practicing with commercial clay, then transitioned to local clay. All he had guiding him was tradition and what he learned through his own practice. For several years he was associating with Andrew Padilla of Laguna and Thomas Tenorio
of Santo Domingo and he picked up a few pointers from them. He eventually got really good at making pottery.He and a couple other potters were trying to reestablish the tradition at Sandia but there are only about 200 residents in the pueblo by that time. Most are employed in other tribal positions, many in the casino/hotel. Almost none remembered anything about making pottery and none of those wanted to share their knowledge. John made pottery for a few years and then he died.
Polychrome bowl with turtle medallions, deer with heart line and geometric design
4.25 H by 11.75 in Dia
Polychrome bowl with hunter, avanyu and geometric design inside and geometric design outside
7.5 in H by 13.5 in Dia
Polychrome owl effigy decorated with a turtle, moth, kiva step, cloud, thunderbird, corn and geometric design
10.75 in H by 8.75 in Dia