Jody Folwell knows how much trouble a beautiful object can cause. In 1984, she brought a green pot painted with horses and human figures to Santa Fe Indian Market. Created with Chiricahua Apache artist Bob Haozous, The Hero Pot confounded judges searching for a category. It won Best of Show. Four decades later, the audacity still feels fresh. (MPR News)
Born in 1942 at Kha’p’o Owingeh, Santa Clara Pueblo, New Mexico, Folwell grew up surrounded by pottery. Her mother, Rose Naranjo, and great-grandmother passed down the craft. Childhood meant gathering materials and mixing clay under bare feet. Vessels stored food, carried water and helped support the family. Later, she studied history, political science and early childhood education, and worked as a teacher. She brought an appetite for the world back to the clay. (Ceramics Now)
Her confidence was grounded in physical knowledge: preparing earth, building vessels by hand, polishing surfaces, managing fire. In 1975, she used a palette knife to sculpt buffalo around a pot called Half a Step. Her daughter Susan remembers being astonished by the technique. The clay’s rough texture became part of the image. Even the surface could have an opinion. (Ceramics Now)
Folwell’s imagination ranged widely. Japanese ceramics, prehistoric European cave paintings and contemporary politics entered her visual vocabulary. In Wild West Show, she cast George W. Bush as a cowboy on horseback, connecting the swagger of Western mythology with American military power. Dad’s Fish recalled her father’s love of fishing. Her vessels accommodate anger and tenderness with equal conviction. (MiaGuides Insight)
Experimentation carried consequences. Some community members objected to her departures from accepted forms. Dealer Lee Cohen offered crucial backing, promising to buy her experimental pots. That commitment helped turn artistic conviction into a sustainable practice. Folwell has continued crediting her family and community, and describing traditional pottery as the spiritual foundation she returns to. (Medicine Man Gallery)
Her vision gives the vessel enough freedom to accommodate a contemporary Indigenous life, including its contradictions, private memories and political judgments. Susan and Polly Rose Folwell, her daughters, have developed ceramic practices of their own. The family inheritance includes permission to invent. (MPR News)
Her first career retrospective, O’Powa O’Meng: The Art and Legacy of Jody Folwell, closes at the New Mexico Museum of Art on September 13, 2026. Its sweep might tempt anyone else into a victory lap. (New Mexico Museum of Art)
Folwell has bushes to prune. Speaking to Southwest Contemporary earlier this year, she described a life crowded with gardening, animals, neighbors and new political work. Asked about the accolades, her attention returned to the question that has kept her hands busy for decades: “What’s next?” (Southwest Contemporary)