Leonidas Tapia (?-1977) was a Puebloan potter from

Ohkay Owingeh, New Mexico Ohkay Owingeh ( Tewa: Ohkwee Ówîngeh ), known by its Spanish name as San Juan de los Caballeros from 1589 to 2005, is a pueblo and census-designated place (CDP) in Rio Arriba County, New Mexico. Ohkay Owingeh is also a federally recognized tri ...

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...

Biography

She was the wife of Jose Blas Tapia and mother of Mary Trujillo (born 1937) and Tom Tapia (b. 1946). Leonidas made traditional San Juan polychrome redware bowls, jars and wedding vases. She also made micaceous pottery. Some of the designs she used on her pottery include the water serpent,

kiva A kiva is a space used by Puebloans for rites and political meetings, many of them associated with the kachina belief system. Among the modern Hopi and most other Pueblo peoples, "kiva" means a large room that is circular and underground ...

steps and clouds. Leonidas participated in the Santa Fe Indian Market from 1970-1976. Tapia’s son, Tom Tapia, learned to make pottery by working with his mother. He works in the

sgraffito ''Sgraffito'' (; plural: ''sgraffiti'') is a technique either of wall decor, produced by applying layers of plaster tinted in contrasting colours to a moistened surface, or in pottery, by applying to an unfired ceramic body two successive lay ...

style and has won numerous awards for his pottery. He also makes pottery with his wife Sue Tapia. Tapia’s daughter, Mary Trujillo, married Helen Cordero’s son, Leonard, from

Cochiti Pueblo Cochiti (; Eastern Keresan: Kotyit ʰocʰi̥tʰ– "Forgotten", Navajo: ''Tǫ́ʼgaaʼ'') is a census-designated place (CDP) in Sandoval County, New Mexico, United States. A historic pueblo of the Cochiti people, it is part of the Albuquerque Met ...

. She learned to make storyteller figures from her mother-in-law Helen who was the first and most famous maker of Cochiti storytellers and has won numerous awards.

External links

Pottery by Leonidas Tapia at the Holmes Museum of Anthropology

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tapia, Leonidas 1977 deaths American women ceramists American ceramists Artists from New Mexico Native American potters Pueblo people 20th-century American women artists Native American women artists Women potters People from Ohkay Owingeh, New Mexico 20th-century ceramists 20th-century Native Americans 1937 births 20th-century Native American women

Biography

Further reading

External links

References