Tony Dallas Koshare Storyteller with Watermelons
This is an authentically hand coiled and hand painted bowl by Tony Dallas a master potter of storytellers from the Hopi tribe. Tony Dallas is a full-blooded Native American Indian, born in 1956 into the Hopi Reservation. He married into the Cochiti Pueblo in the early 1980's. From an early age, he was inspired to learn the art of working with clay sculptures by observing his mother-in-law, Lucy R. Suina.
Tony seriously began making pottery in 1982, learning all the ancient traditional methods of constructing pottery and clay sculptures. His love, however, turned out to be storytellers that he endowed with his own creative genius. He stated, "I started to hand coil a regular storyteller. Then, I thought for a moment. Mudheads and Koshare clowns also tell stories and they are so humorous to me. So I began experimenting with different styles of storytellers using my creative imagination to construct them". Tony's style is a finely painted contemporary flare on a traditional sculpture.
He signs his art as: T.D. followed by a badger claw to denote his Clan origin.
Tony is related to the late Charles Loma.
The present storyteller is a large sculpture containing a central storytelling Koshare singing to five children, each of which is holding up slices of watermelon. The colors are bold and also precisely painted. The pot is signed by Tony.
Item No.: A1297
Artist: Tony Dalas
Size: 10 in H x 5 in D
Price: 1350
