The Elizabeth Cole Butler Collection.

The Elizabeth Cole Butler Collection.

The Elizabeth Cole Butler Collection.

The Elizabeth Cole Butler Collection.

Watercolor of two women sitting on a rug hold pottery. Oqwa Pi (Abel Sanchez) was one of several promising painters who learned the basics for mural painting and watercolor at the Santa Fe Indian School. Moving back to San Ildefonso Pueblo, he led an active life as a religious leader and statesman, holding the Tribal Governor position for six terms. In addition to raising his large family through his farming and fulfilling his extensive community obligations, he maintained a lucrative artistic career, fitting in painting between feast days and using his dining room as a studio. His work features scenes of secular ceremonies and of his community daily life. The San Ildefonso Pueblo walls, unlike many other Pueblos, did not have murals in their kivas. So the influences came from paintings found at Frijoles Canyon where figures were painted on an undecorated ground, often also found on ceramics. Thus the only grounding in this work is the women on top of the rug although the rug appears to be floating. The traditionally dressed figures appear to interact more with the viewer of than with each other. However the accuracy of the clothing, pottery styles and rug designs are accurately depicted.

"Fall Corn Dance" is an opaque watercolor over graphite drawing on a textured wove paper. The artist's signature, "Mootzka", is located at the bottom right corner of the image in black watercolor. The media is generally in good condition but there is some cracking in the dark blue skirts, the yellow stripes of the flag, the green in the feather headdresses, and in most of the red areas. There is also cracking in the brown drum and belt of the figure in pink. An previous acidic mat caused an orange-brown mat burn around the image.

Watercolor painting of a Pueblo dancer about to climb a ladder leaning against a kiva. Awa Tsireh is also called Alfonso Roybal.