Remaining Sessions: Saturday, February 17 and Thursday, February 22
Time: 9:00 am - to 12:30 pm
Location: Steele Auditorium
Fee: $30
Register: Contact the Course Registrar, Kim Schrader at 860.881.3833 or prepareforfair@heardguild.org.  Pay at the door by check or credit card.

The Gaussoins, accomplished jewelers and artists, are descended from Navajo silversmiths and weavers, Picuris Pueblo potters, as well as singers and sculptors. Their shared American Indian heritage, family tradition and sense of community are the springboard for individual creativity and expression while also fostering collaborative efforts.

• Connie Tsosie Gaussoin, a trailblazer for women in metalsmithing in the late 1960s, was winning awards at Santa Fe in the 1970s. She explores new possibilities of form, materials and expression based on personal experiences, including worldwide travel, that have provided opportunities to view and interact with people of other cultures and artistic abilities. Connie has won major awards at many juried exhibitions, including at the Heard. Her jewelry is in permanent collections in the Museum of Indian Arts and Culture and the School of American Research in Santa Fe, the Millicent Rogers Museum in Taos, and the Museum of Man in San Diego.

• Jerry Jr., a Lt. Colonel in the U.S. Army, sold his first bead-wrapped necklace in the sixth grade. He remains closely influenced by traditional Navajo and Pueblo silversmithing designs, though his experiences in Germany and during tours of duty in Kosovo and Iraq, appear in his art. Jerry’s daughter, Kehasbah, will model some of the family’s jewelry.

• Wayne Nez earned an MFA at the University of New Mexico. Working in a variety of media, including monumental sculpture, he uses non-conventional materials like aluminum and found objects like steel mechanical parts in his jewelry and fashion design.

• David considers an innovative spirit one of the most important facets of American Indian identity. This spirit is expressed through his use of new materials and forms. His recent fashion creations encompass the entire body. His “head-to-toe statement of sustainability” for an exhibition at the IAIA Museum of Contemporary Native Arts (MoCNA) consists of an elaborate collar of aluminum and clothesline, a halter-top created from a repurposed leather purse and a skirt fashioned from old prom dresses.

• Tazbah earned a degree in museum studies and plans to pursue a career “preserving the arts for the long term.” She is a weaver and has also collaborated with David on fashion designs, frequently modeling the resulting apparel for publicity photographs.

The Folwells, Santa Clara Pueblo pottery makers, are descendants of Rose Naranjo, the clan matriarch and an accomplished potter. In 2009-2010 the Heard Museum featured works by Jody, Susan and Polly in the exhibit, Mothers & Daughters: Stories in Clay.

• Jody Folwell is an eighth-generation Pueblo potter who is recognized as one of the finest modernist pueblo potters. She still uses traditional methods—digging and processing the clay, coiling, and pit firing to create clay pottery, along with traditional and contemporary ceramics. While her art often touches politics and social issues, it can also be playful and experimental using stylized designs, different clay colors and the addition of acrylic colors.
  
  Educated at the Institute of American Indian Arts, she was the first female potter to win Best of Show at the Santa Fe Indian Market. The Museum of Indian Arts and Culture (MIAC) honored Jody as a Living Treasure and Featured Artist for the 2017 Native Treasures Indian Arts Festival with the exhibit, Jody Naranjo: Revealing Joy.

• Susan Folwell is also an innovator in Pueblo pottery. Although she uses traditional clay and firing techniques and is inspired by traditional designs, she experiments with techniques, clays, designs and forms. She creates compositions with symbols from many Indian cultures resulting in work that has global appeal. According to American Indian Art Magazine, “Susan Folwell’s pottery is like reading a book, as each piece must be turned, examined and viewed from different angles to understand the whole story.”

  Susan has won numerous awards, including at the Santa Fe Indian Market, the Heard Guild Indian Market and Eight Northern Indian Pueblos Artists and Craftsman Show. She studied design and fine arts photography at the Center of Creative Studies in Detroit, MI

• Polly Rose Folwell Quah-eh (Little Rain) has created a variety of traditional and contemporary pieces of pottery over the years. She has won numerous awards for her work at Santa Fe Indian Market, the Heard Museum Market and Gallup Ceremonials

• Jody-Kaa Folwell-Lazaro learned to make pottery from her mother Polly and grandmother Jody. Her innovative pottery is inspired by graphic and grafitti art. She also expresses her creativity in drawing, digital arts, fashion, and metal/jewelry. Through her art she investigates what it is to be an Indigenous woman in the 21^st century. Kaa attends the Studio Arts program at the Institute of American Indian Arts with a focus on metal jewelry and a minor in business and entrepreneurship. Kaa participated in the The Pottery Project showing until 2020 at the Arizona State Museum in Tucson, AZ. She is represented by King Galleries in Scottsdale, AZ.

From decorating on a budget to investing in museum quality art (that might not outperform your stock portfolio but will provide you with hours of joy), this session has something for everyone. We will hear from a distinguished panel of experts moderated by our own Marie Wittwer. The session will conclude with an optional site tour of the shop for those who are interested.

• Moderator: Marie Wittwer
• Panelists:
  James Barajas, Heard Museum Shop Buyer
  Laura Cardinal, Heard Museum Shop Collector's Room Manager
  Caesar Chaves, Heard Museum Director of Creative Design & Marketing
  Yuki Corella, Interior Designer
  Barbara Johnson, Chair, 50th Annual Fair and former Las Guias and Short Course facilitator

• Pat Pruitt (Laguna Pueblo, Chiricahua Apache, Anglo) lives on the Laguna Pueblo in the village of Paguate, New Mexico. He combines his knowledge of traditional silversmithing, degree in mechanical engineering and knowledge of stainless steel machining to create a distinctive style of stainless steel jewelry that challenges notions of what Native American jewelry is. Pat’s Native American heritage inspires his jewelry, but he gives every design a contemporary, industrial edge. He also makes stainless steel body jewelry for the body piercing industry at his business, Custom Steel Body Jewelry.

   

  Pat has won many first-place awards at Santa Fe Indian Market, including 2017 overall Best of Show for his contemporary sculpture, Sentinel v1.0. The piece was crafted from zirconium and titanium, with 250+ machined parts, assembled with more than 600 titanium fasteners, hand finished, and oxidized. The work, which took 760 hours to complete, pays homage to the first bowl he entered into the Santa Fe Market. Pat is the husband of Marla Allison.

• Marla Allison is a contemporary painter from Laguna Pueblo, NM. She has been inspired by Hopi and Laguna Pueblo pottery designs as well as the cubism of Pablo Picasso and squares of Paul Klee. She is known for vivid paintings that depict the landscapes, wildlife, architecture, and particularly the people of her native New Mexico, as well as for experimenting with geometric patterns to depict living forms. Her paintings are based on the contemporary, which borrows from the past. She finds comfort and inspiration by connecting with family, tradition, and being close to her community.

  Marla received an Associate’s Degree in three-dimensional art at the Institute of American Indian Arts (IAIA) in Santa Fe, NM. She has exhibited artwork at the Heard Museum Indian Fair and Market, the Santa Fe Indian Market, and the Smithsonian Native Art Market in New York. She has work in permanent collections at The Heard Museum, The Museum of Indian Arts and Culture (Santa Fe, NM), The Red Cloud Indian School Collections (Pine Ridge, SD) and various private collections around the country and in Rome, Italy.

•  Chris Pruitt (Laguna Pueblo/Chiricahua Apache) is the youngest of four children born to Daniel Pruitt and Geraldine Yahnozha. He was raised in Laguna Pueblo, New Mexico and continues to live in his boyhood village of Paguate. He began his work as a silversmith in 2006 when his “love for rocks, and working with metal was transformed into beautiful and unique pieces of jewelry.” He was mentored by his older brother and jeweler, Pat and by family friend Charlie Bird. Chris’ jewelry represents a contemporary style of silversmithing with a traditional touch. His techniques include fabricating, brazing, texturing, polishing and cutting and inlay of precious and semi-precious stones and wood.

  Chris has received numerous awards, including at the Heard Guild Indian Market in 2010, 2011 and 2012 and at the Santa Fe Indian Market most recently with a First Place (Buckles), Zirconium and Inlay Belt Buckle, collaboration with his brother, Pat. Chris also holds the title of Personal Chef backed by his Le Cordon Bleu training.