Jemez Pueblo
Leonard Tsosie “Corn Hill” was born in the late 1940’s
into the Jemez Pueblo.
Leonard was inspired to continue a long lived tradition by observing
his wife, Emily Fragua-Tsosie. She is known for hand coiling storytellers
and corn maidens. Leonard has been working with clay since the age of
11.
However, he didn’t spark an interest in working with clay until
he noticed how dedicated his wife was to her art.
Leonard specializes in natural hand molded and hand painted figurines
and story tellers. He gathers up his clay from the sacred grounds within
the Jemez Pueblo. Leonard cleans the clay, mixes, shapes his pottery,
fires the clay, and sand dries the pottery to a nice smoothness, paints
with all natural colors and fires it one final time.
He enjoys making his horses best of all.
He signs his pottery master pieces as: L. Tsosie-Corn-Hill, Jemez.
Leonard is related to the following artists: Joanne Toribio and Irene
Hererra (sisters).
Awards:
-1997 Eighth Northern 1st and 2nd place
-1997 Santa Fe Indian Market 2nd place
-1996 Eighth Northern 3rd place
Publications:
-Southern Pueblo Pottery 2,000 Artist Biographies
-Pueblo Storytellers
-Pueblo Family Potters