This biography from the Archives of AskART:
|  Known for her colorful, intricately designed Southwest Indian-motif
pottery, Nancy Youngblood was born at Fort Lewis, Washington but at age
13 moved with her mother to the Santa Clara Pueblo in New Mexico while
her father served in Vietnam. Her mother, Mela Youngblood, was a
potter, as was Nancy's grandmother, Margaret Tafoya, "the matriarch of
pueblo pottery". From Tafoya, she learned traditional methods of
pottery making, and by 1972 she was exhibiting her work and that year
won second prize at the Gallup Intertribal Ceremonial competition.
Her father, having returned from the war, said he would support Nancy
financially only if she would continue schooling. In 1973, she
graduated from McCurdy High School and then attended the San Francisco
Art Institute on a scholarship. She returned to New Mexico, and
determined to pursue pottery, moved in with her aunt Shirley Tafoya at
Santa Clara. Together the created miniature pots. At this
time, Youngblood's signature style began to appear---"deeply ridged,
S-swirl melon bowls".
She also enrolled in art classes at the University of New Mexico, and
during this time did some design and carving work. However, she
made the decision to focus on her pottery. By 1976, she had a
solo exhibition in Scottsdale, Arizona, and the gallery owner, Stanley
Cohen, until his death 19 years later, took over the marketing of her
work.
In the 1980s, she increased the size of her pots from miniatures and
shaped vases, water jars and melon bowls with designs expanded from
those rooted in Pueblo life to thunderbird and shell designs.
Although, her experimentations have taken her beyond her cultural
roots, she has reaffirmed in her later work her Santa Clara traditions
that she learned from family members, the deeply carved designs and
unique polish with bear paw and other symbols.
In 1989, she won the 'Best of Show' award at the Santa Fe Indian
Market, and in 1997, she received the Distinguished Artist Award from
the Santa Fe Rotary Foundation.
Source:
Website of the artist
http://www.nancyyoungbloodinc.com/biography.html
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