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Robert Tenorio

Kewa (Santo Domingo Pueblo), b. 1950

BiographyRobert Tenorio was born in 1950 into the Santo Domingo “Kewa” Pueblo. He has been working with clay since the age of 10. He was taught all the fundamentals of hand coiling pottery using ancient traditional methods from his family members. Lupe Tenorio shared some of her special techniques with Robert. He was also inspired to continue the long lived family tradition from the admiration he had for old pottery from his village. Robert began his career by studying jewelry making. In 1968, he enrolled at the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe. Learning to make jewelry "was the popular thing then," he recalls, plus "I wanted to make jewelry to help with the family." Robert, however, soon found himself next door in the ceramics class, "stealing their clay and potting away".

Robert began by making stew bowls for his mother. When other women at the Pueblo saw them, they wanted bowls too and so Robert's mother was constantly at the school asking him to make more bowls.

In those days, Robert's bowls were made from stoneware, a type of processed clay that is fired in a kiln. Today, Robert uses native clays and traditional firing methods. The black on Robert's pottery usually comes from the Rocky Mountain bee plant. "We boil the whole plant," he says, however he has discovered that boiling almost any kind of plant will produce a black juice. Robert prefers the bee plant because in the old days "it was our people's food, and it's still present in our food. We call it wild spinach."

He signs his pottery as: Robert Tenorio, followed by small dipper star formation, and Kewa.

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