Nora Naranjo Morse
+Matriarch Monday+
Nora Naranjo Morse
Nora(born 1953) is a Native American potter and poet. She currently resides in Espanola, New Mexico just north of Santa Fe and is a member of the Santa Clara Pueblo. She is the daughter of potter Rose Naranjo.
She is the daughter of potter Rose Naranjo.[1]Her work can be found in several museum collections including the Heard Museum in Phoenix, Arizona, the Minneapolis Institute of Art in Minnesota, and the National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, DC.
Nora Naranjo Morse's work is made from recycled materials. Working with wire, plastic and other discarded materials Naranjo Morse is forging a new direction in her work. Although known for her ceramics, these new forms express Naranjo Morse's distinctive aesthetics and continued approach to her artistic growth.
Naranjo Morse works in several mediums including organic materials. The ephemeral installation, "Always Becoming" made of clays, packed earth, wood and stone can be seen at the Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Indian. A feature length documentary focuses on the making of the five "Always Becoming" sculptures and the themes of land and community behind the installation concept.
Naranjo Morse's work has exhibited nationally at numerous museums and internationally. Nora continues to explore issues of environment, culture and the social practice of making art with community.
Remembering
My project entitled, “Remembering” is inspired by the billboards I saw as a child growing up in the Southwest where billboards were a familiar site. The large advertisements were often strung together -sometimes only 20 feet apart- ad were stretched along the interstate for miles. From a 10-cent cup of coffee to Handmade Indian crafts, the images and colorful lettering on the billboards were big and bright enough to see from a distance. The messaging of selling gas and coffee alongside culture both intrigued and confused me. I never understood what a 10 foot high, illustrated caricature of an Indian woman making pottery and, kinda resembling my Aunt Carma, had in common with the price of gas. I was unable to make sense of how someone, not from the same culture, saw and commodified the culture I was from. This conflicted with my true identity, an identity that came and still comes from my community, culture and the land we walk. As an adult, I can clearly see the same kind of advertising on certain sections of I-40. These new billboards reminded of the insidious marginalization of culture that still comes from advertising— then and now. So “Remembering” is a response to the billboards that cluttered my youth with confusion.
The “Remembering” billboard stands unapologetically in front of the Cholla Power Plant on I-40, twenty-three miles East of Winslow, Arizona. Cholla Power Plant processes coal and basically employees a large segment of Joseph City, a small town a couple of miles away. I-40 is the main artery to most of the West Coast cities so there’s an endless stream of traffic day and night. The Cholla plant exists on traditional tribal lands so many travelers through I-40 are indigenous. The message of the billboard is accompanied by an image native people will recognize as cultural in nature. This message is for them as well. “Remembering” acknowledges and reaffirms the values crucial to our survival as indigenous people - Land. Culture. Community. Family.
“Remembering” is not advertising in the “normal” sense of the word. However, it is promoting a non-tangible concept. It’s the concept of protecting the sacred-ness of life no matter who we are, where we're from or, where we're going.
A Well-Traveled Coyote
John F. Kennedy
New York City
I saw him across the lobby
flight 161
St. Louis
Albuquerque.
Coyote looked in control
cool
fitting right into the city
smiling when a pretty woman passed him
figuring out his flight
making calculations from behind
the New York Times.
Slick
right down to his Tony Lamas
Coyote
I’d recognize him anywhere
Copenhagen
New York
Gallup.
People say
you can dress ’em up
but once a coyote
always a coyote.
“A Well-Traveled Coyote” from Mud Woman. Copyright © 1992 by Nora Naranjo-Morse.
Source: University of Arizona Press