Rachel Aragon

Artist Profile

Rachel Aragon was born in 1938 into the Acoma Pueblo. She is a member of the Eagle Clan. Rachel was encouraged and inspired to learn the art of working with clay at the age of 10 from her mother, Lupe Aragon. Lupe shared with Rachel the fundamentals of hand coiling pottery using ancient traditional methods. Rachel graduated from high school in 1958 and then began pursuing a career in working with clay on a more professional level. Rachel specializes in hand coiled traditional pottery. She soaks, grinds, cleans, hand mixes, hand coils, shapes and sands the clay and then hand paints the pottery using natural pigments which she boils together to produce the natural colors she paints with. Then, she fires her pottery outdoors with wood chips. She is well known for her light weight pottery and her beautiful painted designs. She signs her pottery as: Rachel Aragon, Acoma, N.M. Rachel is related to: Mary Trujillo (sister), Emma Chino (cousin), Marie Torivio (cousin), Carol Loretto and Geraldine Sando (nieces).