Award Winners ~ Details
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Larry Lominac Memorial Award of Excellence
~ $550.00 ~ Courtesy of Friends of Larry Lominac ~
"Owl"
by Ethel Shields, Acoma Pueblo
Scroll to see more info below the photo
Photos by Jannelle Weakly
Ethel Shields
Description: Large pottery owl with 4 baby owls on its wings. Natural clay and pigments, kiln-fired
About this Award: Awarded to recognize the use of humor and animal imagery (particularly bears) in any medium. Larry, who passed away in 2003, was the husband of ASM Staff member Karen Lominac. His lifelong love of animals inspired the creation of this award.
Jurors' Comments:
J. Ware: The storyteller owl is a hoot! I like the way it combines the traditional storyteller images from the Rio Grande with the traditional owl depictions on Acoma pottery and you can't help but laugh.
A. Abeita: This owl clay sculpture represents the animal or bird representation of "storyteller" and the bird with the humorous look on her face and babies on her wings represents storytelling time which I think is a really good concept—signifying a time of fun and humor.
M. Polyestewa: I picked the owl because it is a storyteller; there are 4 owls on the body and in Hopi we use owls for the deceased—since the person is gone/deceased, it represents a deceased person. When a person expires, they make prayer feathers from the owl feathers and put on them along with the eagle feathers. Owls have a lot of meaning because we believe our spirit arises on the third day like Christ so we take the feathers and make a prayer stick with owl and eagle feathers, and it means the person is gone. It's humorous because it's "storyteller" for a good thing, "for one and all."
