Speaker 
 
Nora Naranjo Morse 
Artist 
New Mexico 

My name is Nora Naranjo Morse. I’m a Kha’p’o Tewa Indian from New Mexico, and I made this piece entitled Pods.

In the dictionary, the definition of a pod is described as a seed vessel, a protective pouch.

In explaining why I created Pods in clay, let me give you some background.

I come from a Pueblo tribe in Northern New Mexico that has a long and rich history of working with clays gathered from the mountains and hillsides along the Río Grande.

Historically, Pueblo people made vessels for utilitarian and ceremonial purposes: vessels that Pueblo people cooked in, carried water in, and served food on. In the winter months, seeds were kept dry in hollow, coiled seed containers, which are referred to as seed balls.

I am a clay worker like my mother, her mother, and her mother. My work is influenced by Pueblo culture and the environment I was born into.

Each spring, wild garlic grows outside my studio. Wild garlic sometimes have elongated stems that gracefully curve and twist upward toward the sun, and at their tips are bulblike pods creating a perfect example of form and function in nature. Watching wild garlic grow feeds my creativity.

Pods, made in clay, was inspired by the environment I’ve lived in all my life—Pueblo culture that’s been passed down through generations and safely stored in my memory, ready to harvest on any given day.