Acoma Pueblo

Sharon “Butterfly or Turquoise” Stevens is a member of the Bear Clan. She was born into the Acoma Pueblo in 1960.

Sharon was inspired to continue the long lived family tradition of making pottery from her grandmother, the late Lolita Garcia, and her mother, Rosita Stevens. Lolita and Rosita taught Sharon on the fundamentals of hand making traditional pottery, using the ancient methods of their ancestors. Sharon began experimenting with clay at the age of 15.

Sharon specializes in the hand coiled Acoma ollas. She gathers her clay and other natural pigments from within the grounds of the Acoma Pueblo. Then, she cleans the clay, mixes, hand coils, shapes, paints, and fires her pottery. She fashions a yucca stem into a brush and paints her pottery using the natural pigments she gathered along with her clay. Her favorite designs to paint are the turtleback (turtles are believed to bring you long life) and lizards designs (lizards are believed to bring good luck). She hand coils many shapes and sizes of pottery. Sharon likes working with the larger pottery because she can be more creative with designs.

She signs her pottery as: S.L. Stevens, followed by a bear paw to denote her Clan origin.

Sharon is related to the following artists: Virginia Garcia (sister) and Manuel Stevens (brother).


Awards:
-None to date
Publications:
-Southern Pueblo Pottery 2,000 Artist Biographies