Marquis Dann-Lente

Artist Profile

Marquis Dann-Lente was born in 1970 and is a member of the Water Clan and Kachina Clan. He is half Hopi and half Laguna. Marquis was inspired to learn the art of working with clay from Preston Duwyenie of the Hopi reservation and May Chavez of the Acoma pueblo. They taught Marquis the fundamentals of constructing hand coiled pottery using the ancient traditional methods passed down from generation to generation.

Marquis specializes in hand coiled and hand painted traditional pottery. He hand mixes the clay with sand and water to tempter the clay. He begins the hand coiling process by rolling the clay into snake like coils and begins building his pottery to his desired shape. Once his vessel has been formed it is set out to dry. He fashions a brush from a yucca stem with his teeth and he boils his raw plants for his desired natural colors to paint his pottery. Once dried, he sands the pot for a smooth finish. He then hand paints his favorite designs such as birds, finelines, rainbow bands and geometric designs. Finally, he fires his pottery the traditional way, outdoors with cedar chips. He signs his pottery: Lente, Laguna. He is related to: Floyd Dann, Jr (father) and Sandra J. Lente (mother).