Collections: Arts of the Americas

Roxanne Swentzell (b. 1962). Making Babies for Indian Market, 2004. Santa Clara Pueblo, New Mexico. Santa Clara. Ceramic, pigment, 23 1/2 x 8 1/2 x 17 in. (59.7 x 21.6 x 43.2 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Gift in memory of Helen Thomas Kennedy, 2004.80

This sculpture is a contemporary version of the traditional storyteller figure with a humorous twist. It makes a dual statement on the production of traditional-style pottery for the Santa Fe Indian Market for sale to collectors as well as on the Pueblo potter's need to create something lasting for generations to come. A Pueblo woman sits with her legs and arms stretched out in front of her. Her feet are bare; her arms and hands rest on her legs below the knees. She wears a black, Pueblo-style dress with one shoulder bare and a white waistband decorated in red-ocher vertical dashes. The figure's face resembles the artist herself, Roxanne Swentzell. Her eyes look up toward the classic-style Santa Clara Pueblo black pot balanced on her head. Two babies emerge from the pot, one shown halfway out while the other has its head poking up. A third baby stands on the woman's shoulder and is reaching toward those emerging from the pot. A fourth baby sits on the woman's lap with an expression of deep contentment. The entire piece is a tour de force of workmanship, a hand-formed sculpture that merges two worlds, the time-honored and the modern.