Lawrence Namoki

Artist Profile

Lawrence Namoki is from Walpi, Arizona. His father, Maxwell, was a high priest of Hopi society and a kachina maker. As a boy, Namoki was not allowed to watch his father carve since carving was limited to the ceremonial kivas. When Namoki was a teenager he was initiated in the Kachina Society where his father gave him a piece of cottonwood and taught him to make the sacred figures. While Namoki continues the family tradition of kachina carving, a trip to the Santa Fe Indian Market inspired him to try his hand at pottery making. A self-taught potter, Namoki has won many awards for his creations of pottery so intricately carved it looked like wood. “I concentrate on one pot at a time, I let my hands do the carving but my mind is on the next project. I never sketch it out. When I’m developing designs, I hear the voices of my elders in my mind like a recording, telling me stories. These are stories that are over a thousand years old, passed from generations. How man was created. How the Hopis prophesized it. I spread my stories using my pottery. My pottery is my canvas,” Namoki said.