Denise Chavarria was born in 1959 to a family of Kah'p'oo Owinge Pueblo (Santa Clara Pueblo) potters highly regarded for their traditional styles of pottery making. Denise began to learn how to make Pueblo pottery at the age of sixteen. Although initially inspired by her mother’s pottery creations, Denise eventually learned her Tewa speaking culture’s traditional forms and design motifs from both her mother, Stella Chavarria, and her maternal grandmother, Teresita Naranjo. At the time Denise was born, Teresita had already been fully providing for her family financially through the sales of her pottery for almost a decade, after the passing of her husband in 1950. Her great-grandmother was Christina Naranjo and her great-great-grandmother was, Serafina Tafoya – making Denise the descendant of a long-line of accomplished and skilled potters.

Not only did Denise acquire the skill to bring about her family’s designs - like the Avanyu water serpent, kiva steps, whirlwinds, rain clouds, and lightning - on various pottery forms but also the know-how regarding the ancestral techniques used to create a Pueblo pottery vessel itself. Beginning with learning the process of gathering clay from the hills near her home within ‘Singing Water Village’ with her sister, Loretta ‘Sunday’ Chavarria, which can be a challenging journey due to the alternating layers of sand and clay found in that special location. Denise then learned how to clean the clay and to prepare it for creating – in other words removing any naturally occurring debris and mixing the clay with some white ash and allowing the mixture to set for a day or so. At this stage the clay is now ready to be used in the same manner her ancestors had by hand-coiling the clay to form her vessels body. Denise then deeply carves the designs within the body of the vessel. After allowing the adorned body to harden, as she was taught, she then sands and polishes the vessel before ultimately firing it in a hand-built, open-air pit fire. She employs horse manure while firing some of her pieces in order to turn them from red to black in a process that is called reduction firing. Her red pieces are simply fired in an open pit. Upon unearthing these vessels from the pit fire, Denise will finally highly polish the pieces one more time before presenting them to family members, fellow potters, her community, collectors, dealers and tourists alike.

In former interviews Denise has shared fond memories that were formed while learning these techniques of making miniature animal figurines, canoes and hornos with ‘Sunday’ to then gather in baskets to bring to the plaza at Santa Clara Pueblo where they would set them up next to other Pueblo potter’s offerings to sell to tourists and local visitors.  After becoming quite accomplished with her family’s methods of pottery making, Denise embarked on her own career as a potter while working full-time. Her initial offerings were said to be similar to those of her mother’s and grandmother’s but eventually her own unique style grew from her continued pursuit of creating with pottery the way her ancestors did. However, when Denise began making larger scaled jars and pots than she was used to, she was purposefully heeding her great-great grandmother and great grandmother’s works. She signs her pottery as: Denise Chavarria, Santa Clara Pueblo.

An award-winning artist, Denise has participated in Santa Fe’s annual Indian Market, the Eight Northern Pueblos Arts and Crafts Show and the New Mexico State Fair, earning awards regularly since the early 1990's. She has had the distinct honor of taking home 1st, 2nd, & 3rd Place ribbons from the Santa Fe Indian Market. Additionally, Denise and her artwork have been featured in four publications, which are: Fourteen Families in Pueblo Pottery (Dillingham), Seven Families in Pueblo Pottery (Maxwell Museum of Anthropology), Pottery, Southwestern Pottery Anasazi to Zuni (Hayes & Blom) and lastly, Pueblo Indian Pottery 750 Artist Biographies (Schaaf).

Ms. Chavarria in 2018 was commissioned by the Indian Pueblo Store (formerly known as Shumakolowa Native Arts Gallery) in Albuquerque, NM, to be a contributing Pueblo artist for their second series of traditionally made Pueblo pottery in the form of a contemporary coffee mug, which is then replicated for sale by the Indian Pueblo Store. The carved redware styled ceramic mug was duplicated from one of Denise’s carved redware jars that she shaped in the form of a contemporary travel mug. Being a non-traditional form for a Pueblo potter, Denise explained how it took her three attempts to finalize the shape of her travel mug. The mug is adorned with an Avanyu motif and even though it is made of ceramic, it still carries the spirit of a Pueblo pottery mug. Shumakolowa asked Denise if there was anything she wanted the world to know about pottery-making and her mug; “It’s not a hobby – it’s something that I love to do. And the people who purchase that mug, I hope they feel the love that’s coming out of it. As much love as I put into making that piece, that’s what I hope they feel.”

Despite continuing to work full-time, Denise still creates her pottery on the weekends and during her time-off for a vacation or holidays. Over decades, she has strengthened her relationship with Pueblo pottery making. In her own words - “It’s hard work, but you have to be dedicated, and not be lazy – you can’t be lazy – because if you are, Mother Clay knows you are,” she chuckles, “and forget it – she’s not going to let you work with her.” Denise Chavarria is a dedicated artist to both her creations, her family and her traditions – blending her passions and cultural heritage quite beautifully. 

SOURCES CITED:

In the Eyes of the Pot | A Journey into the World of Native American Pottery:
https://www.eyesofthepot.com/santa-clara/denise-chavarria.php

Indian Pueblo Store | Formerly Shumakolowa Native Arts Gallery
https://www.indianpueblostore.com/pages/denise-chavarria
https://www.indianpueblostore.com/blogs/native-art-artists/denise-chavarria-and-the-santa-clara-craft

Dillingham, Rick, Fourteen Families in Pueblo Pottery, Albuquerque, University of New Mexico Press, 1994, ISBN  0-97808263149-9-4 Softbound, Pgs. 146 - 157, 184 -185

Material Insight | Historic & Contemporary Pueblo Pottery
https://www.material-insight.com/IndianArt/PeoplePhotos/ChavarriaDeniseSantaClara.htm

Pueblo Direct | Native American Arts from the Pueblo Direct to You
https://www.pueblodirect.com/collections/denise-chavarria