Hands in Clay: Pueblo Traditions with Pumpkin

Every third Saturday of each month, stop by the Ames Family Atrium between 11:00 a.m. and 3:00 p.m. to get a firsthand look at the art-making process. Each session provides the opportunity to engage and interact with a different Northeast Ohio maker during pop-up demonstrations and activities. See their work unfold and learn how artists create. Explore a related selection of authentic objects from the CMA’s Education Art Collection in a pop-up Art Up Close session. See, think, and wonder.

Celebrate Native American Heritage month with Taos Pueblo Red Willow potter Marian Renee Pumpkin Concha-Saastamoinen, known as Pumpkin, as she demonstrates her artistic practice, rooted in generations of traditional pottery making from the Taos and Jemez/Laguna/Acoma Pueblos. In connection with Rose B. Simpson’s installation Strata, Pumpkin hosts a pottery-making demonstration. Guests also have the opportunity to learn more about ancestral pueblo pottery making, chat with Pumpkin about her art, and add to pottery design drawings created by Pumpkin.

Pumpkin is a potter from Red Willow (Taos Pueblo), with her mother’s nation in Walatowa/Jemez, Laguna, and Acoma Pueblo. She learned pottery from her mother, grandmothers, and aunts, following a lineage of artisans spanning three generations. Pumpkin crafts pottery in the traditional Red Willow/Taos and Jemez styles, keeping a promise to preserve these ancestral methods. Her work reflects the teachings of her Jemez grandmother, Carrie Reid Loretto, and her mother, Alma (Concha) Maestas, whose pottery is held in collections worldwide.

Pumpkin’s artistry is rooted in the natural clays of her homelands—micaceous clay from Taos and Jemez clay with traditional temper and slip-painted designs. Each piece is hand formed and imbued with prayers of gratitude to Mother Earth. At 62, she lives in Kent, is married, and has two daughters—one a doctor, the other a mother to her only grandson. Pumpkin remains an active community member of LENAC in Cleveland.