Tina Garcia

Santa Clara Pueblo

Tina Garcia

Tina Garcia was born in Oregon in 1957. Her mother, Lydia Tafoya, was from Santa Clara Pueblo, her father, Santiago Garcia, was from San Juan Pueblo. They returned to Santa Clara Pueblo when Tina was five and for the rest of her youth, she was surrounded by some of the finest traditional pueblo potters on Earth. Her grandmother was Severa Gutierrez Tafoya, her aunt Angela Baca, and between them and her mother, she was producing black ware on her own by the time she was eleven.

In 1980, Tina decided she wanted to be a potter full time so she studied the collections at the School for Advanced Research in Santa Fe. Then she made a decision to create the traditional classic shapes of Santa Clara pottery without the carving that was being done by most Santa Clara potters at that time. She has now and then used the bear paw imprint in her pottery but generally her pots are red ware or black ware, classic shapes and undecorated. She was also very good at making large pots, up to 25 inches in height and/or diameter.

Tina earned the Best of Division award at the Santa Fe Indian Market in 1986 and again in 1996. While most of her other ribbons were blue, she took home some award nearly every time she went to Santa Fe Indian Market. Tina died in 2005.