Romaine Begay
My name is Romaine Begay, Ro. I am Towering House born into the Zuni clan. This is a formal Navajo greeting. Nizhoni Pottery is where I create a combination of traditional and contemporary pottery. Nizhoni is a Navajo word meaning beautiful, fine, and good, all in one depending on the accent used. My connection with art has been throughout my life. Early on as a child my cousin and I would have drawing competitions to see who the better artist was. I have my father to thank for encouraging me to better myself with a college education and the ceramics program at WNMU for keeping me in college and earning a degree. I earned a Bachelor of Science in Fine Art with an emphasis in ceramics. Not a lot of people can say that they play in mud all day for a living.
Both my grandmother and grandfather have strong influences within my work. My grandmother, Lydia Mason, on my father’s side, is a very strong woman in all ways. Up into her late eighties she was still herding sheep on her trusty ol’ horse. She was the one who gave me my real name. My Navajo name. Many of the designs I use are the same ones she used in her rugs designs. These are traditional Navajo designs, which have importance and meaning to each one.
My grandfather Jim Mason, on my father’s side, is a great man. The one thing I really miss about being home is hearing his stories. He told me stories of the Navajo people, the creation of the Dine, coyote and many other animals. My favorite stories of his are of First Man and First Woman, the twin monster killers and of Turquoise Boy.
I was born and raised in the Farmington, New Mexico area with traditional Navajo beliefs and ideas. I have always had my hands in some sort of art. It was not until I started my formal art training at Western New Mexico University though, that I found my true medium, clay.
The process I used in college and the process I use now are the same. This includes using a red and white stoneware clay body and mixing glazes from the raw form. The firing technique I use is done in a downdraft gas kiln, with a heavy body reduction. The firing process takes about a total of twenty-five hours. The pottery goes through a nine hour first firing cycle of twelve hours with a heavy reduction.
Over the years my glaze designs have been influenced from the Navajo rug weavings, which is practiced in my family and from the traditional stories of the Navajo people. The drawings I depict on some wall plates are representative of the shamans and traditional Native American and contemporary pottery of today.
