FACT SHEET
Release Date:
MEDIA CONTACT:
Mark Scarp, 602.251.0283 or mscarp@heard.org
Debra Krol, 602.251.0218 or dkrol@heard.org
MEDIA USED BY HOPI ARTIST CHARLES LOLOMA
PHOENIX – The new exhibit, Loloma: Expressions in Metal, Ink and Clay, opening Feb. 26 at
the Heard Museum, reveals Charles Loloma’s (Hopi) creative process through this exhibit of his
early pottery, groundbreaking jewelry, paintings and drawings. His abstract drawings, many shown
for the first time, provide insight into his approach to design.
Teaching through DRAWING
For Loloma, drawing was also a teaching tool. When Loloma’s niece Verma Nequatewa (Sonwai)
began working in her uncle’s studio in the late 1960s, Loloma instructed her to draw as one
method toward honing her design skills. With a swish of his hand, Loloma would draw
extemporaneous circular and linear forms and have Nequatewa fill in the open spaces with
intricate designs. Years later, when he taught Georgia Loloma, a former art teacher, the same
technique, she found his approach to drawing a fun and intriguing new way of expressing an idea.
The majority of the drawings in this exhibit were made in the early 1980s. Many of them reference
corn, while others reflect traditional sashes woven by Hopi men. Several others are architectural
drawings for building exteriors or room interiors. Many are abstract representations of northern
Arizona’s landscape, with lines that follow mesa outlines and variegated land patterns. The
complex rock strata of the mesas, with their striations and variations in pattern, are strongly
reflected in Loloma’s jewelry designs with their multifaceted inlay of varying stones.
Designing METAL Jewelry
Through Loloma’s drawings, it is possible to see the ways in which the complexity of his fine-line
drawings translated to intricate inlays. Some of the drawings show a relationship to the height
bracelets and multi-stone inlay bracelets he designed. The drawings provide insight into the ways
in which an artist reflects his world and translates that reflection into varying art forms.
Loloma also made quick sketches as simple references for his jewelry designs. These were
hurriedly drawn and often contained notations as to which stones to incorporate and the positions
of the stones. The jewelry drawings shown in this exhibit are at times associated with the exact
items of jewelry made from them, while at other times similar examples of jewelry have been
paired with the drawings.
Through his use of unusual materials—pearls, malachite, charoite, sugilite, gold—and atypical
jewelry techniques, as well as innovative designs, Loloma became a leader in contemporary
American Indian jewelry. In addition to changing the overall look of the jewelry, he changed the
way collectors viewed Indian jewelry. His designs, particularly lining the reverse of an item such as
a buckle or the interior of a bracelet or ring, had a tremendous impact on generations of artists that
followed him.
Forming Vessels with CLAY
At times, designs are translated through different media. Drawings or paintings may contain
designs also apparent in pottery and jewelry. After his honorable discharge from the U.S. Army,
Loloma and his wife Otellie received scholarships to study pottery making at the School of
American Craftsmen at Alfred University from 1947 to 1949. Traditional Hopi pottery techniques
utilize a centuries-old process of gathering the clay from nearby clay pits, cleaning and preparing
the clay, constructing forms from coils of clay, polishing with a smooth stone, painting, and then
firing out of doors. At the time Charles Loloma undertook pottery making, it was traditionally—
though not exclusively—a skill of women. Generations of women taught girls, usually family
members, with daughters learning from mothers, grandmothers or aunts. Charles and Otellie
Loloma learned a completely different technique for making pottery at the School of American
Craftsmen. They used commercially processed clay and a potter’s wheel to make a pottery shape.
They incorporated natural clay slips and paints used at Hopi when possible. Finished forms were
fired in a gas or electric kiln.
Following their studies at Alfred, Charles and Otellie returned home to northern Arizona for a short
time, but then they moved to Scottsdale, where they sold pottery at Lloyd Kiva New’s Kiva Craft
Center—a series of small shops operated by individual artists who were mostly Anglo. Like the
Lolomas and New, the artists at the Kiva Craft Center made a range of handmade goods, from
clothing to jewelry to stained glass items.
The Lolomas applied muted glazes, generally in brown or yellow tones, to their pottery. Otellie
favored anthropomorphic shapes, and at times Charles painted animal designs. Often he focused
upon texture and incised designs. Some of the designs on his pottery are Hopi basket makers or
Corn Maidens. Both of these images are themes he depicted in drawings or paintings, pottery and
jewelry. Loloma rather quickly replaced his work in clay with work in metals.
Heard Museum – Native Cultures and Art
2301 North Central Ave., Phoenix, Ariz. 85004-1323
602.252.8840 or visit heard.org
Join us!
pinterest.com/heardmuseum
facebook.com/heardmuseum
twitter.com/heardmuseum
youtube.com/heardmuseum
About the Heard
Since 1929, the Heard Museum, a private non-profit organization, has enchanted visitors from around
the world with the art, culture and history of American Indians, with an emphasis on tribes of the
Southwest. With more than 40,000 fine artworks and cultural artifacts in its permanent collection, 11
long-term and changing exhibit galleries, an education center, an award-winning Shop, the Books &
More boutique bookstore, Coffee Cantina and Courtyard Café, the Heard Museum is a place of
learning, discovery and unforgettable experiences.
Exhibit, event and program funding are provided in part by the Arizona Commission on the Arts, the Arizona
Humanities Council, the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Humanities and the
Phoenix Office of Arts and Culture.