Hopi Artists today

Today Hopi arts forms include decorative and functional art and crafts. Their work is sought after around the world, and is appreciated as expressing a classical balance of images, colors, and textures that relate to the natural world. Animals, plants, the night sky, rain and weather, ceremonies, dances, deities, historic events, and every day life are reflected in Hopi work today.

Jewelry is an important trade item for the Hopi today. They specialize in a silver overlay techniques where one piece of silver is delicately cut out in a design, then fused to a solid piece of silver. In the void created by the top overlay, a black finish is added, enhancing the design and emphasizing the relief created by the two layers of silver.

(silver overlay pin by Chalmers Day)


Kachinas

Artists today are carving traditional Kachinas with amazing detail and skill


Crow Mother - mother of all Kachinas (Angwusnasomtaka by Malcolm Youvella)

And are interpreting the Kachina form in new and unusual ways


Baskets

Hopi women continue to weave baskets, often in the form of flat trays used as wall decoration.





Ceremonial dance wear

Every dancer in a Hopi ceremonial or social dance wears specific costume elements - leaves, fur, leather, and painted wooden headdresses called tabletas, and may carry wooden wands and sticks carved and painted to resemble arrows, or lightning bolts. These wooden carved and painted pieces are sought after by collectors.


Paintings

Hopi painters build a bridge between their past culture and the world around them today. They may paint landscapes, Kachinas dancing, or add mixed media to draw attention to the challenges the Indians face today.


Kachina Mesa #3 by Dan Nimingha


Passage and Symbolism by Dan Namingha


Ruins of a Culture by Lomayesva

Pottery

The Hopi pottery revival we have studied in Camp Internet that took place in the early 1900s has lead to five generations of potters who continue to develop interpretations of prehistoric pottery, and who may also chose to develop their own innovations in clay. Many families have fostered a lineage of potters spanning several generations, and their names are well known in the art world. What ever style, or whatever family, Hopi pottery today is still made much in the same way it was by their prehistoric ancestors. The clay is gathered at special sites, coiled and shaped into pots, bowls, tiles, vases, plates, figurines, cups, painted with natural pigments, and then fired in outdoor kilns. The results, as you can see, are some of the most beautiful pottery in the world.


Hopi seed pot by Dawn Navasie


Hopi/Tewa pot y Rondina Huma
Parrot vase by Jacob Koopee


Hopi Pot by Les Namingha

Are sought after by collectors, are exhibited in contemporary art exhibits, and help the 'outside' world to have a glimpse into the mysterious life of the traditional Hopi peoples.