2014 Native Arts & Cultures Foundation Recipient

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Nora Naranjo-Morse

Grantee: 

Nora Naranjo-Morse

Native Citizenship: 

Tewa Santa Clara Pueblo

Location: 

Española, NM

Award: 

2014 NACF Artist Fellowship

Discipline: 

Visual Arts

Web Site: 

Chiaroscuro Contemporary Art

 

Known foremost for her work with clay, Nora Naranjo-Morse is an artist whose works spans from pottery and figurines to installation exhibits and large-scale public art.

Naranjo-Morse makes constant reference to the earth as an evolving organic whole by creatively employing natural and found materials in her work. From large earth works to clay and straw towers to a clay rope draped across streets and buildings throughout the city of Santa Fe, her works often feature notes of whimsy. Beyond Santa Fe, her work can be appreciated at the Heard Museum in Arizona and the Minneapolis Institute of Art in Minnesota. Her hand-built sculpture piece "Always Becoming" was selected in a 2005 outdoor sculpture competition by the National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, D.C.

With the support of a 2014 NACF Artist Fellowship, Naranjo-Morse will work a vein of usable clay she found near the Santa Clara community garbage dump while seeking found materials to reclaim as part of her current focus on sustainable living methods.

Born from an artistic family, she is the youngest daughter of Santa Clara-Laguna potter Rose Naranjo and her eight siblings have engaged in practicing this art form as well.