Marie Suazo

Marie Suazo, Santa Clara Pueblo, Marie is the granddaughter of Rosita Velarde; daughter of Teresa Gutierrez; sister of Carol Velarde, Ivan Gutierrez, Doris Tenorio, Earl Gutierrez, and Tony Gutierrez, Jr. Suazo. Marie Suazo has been a consistent award winner at Santa Fe Indian Market since 1990 and she has been referenced and published in numerous books and articles. She is a very accomplished potter. Marie took a three-year break following the loss of her husband, who was her helper. Now she is back in the business and doing everything by herself, and she is doing an outstanding job. Suazo is accomplished at firing black and red pottery with equal efficiency.

Many potters at Santa Clara Pueblo produce black carved pottery but few achieve the deep cuts into the pottery wall that Suazo does. Additionally, to offset the design, she faintly outlines the edges of the cuts with a thin matte black line. Such a simple outline of the design greatly enhances its visual impact.

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Martha Suazo was a potter from Santa Clara Pueblo. She grew up in a family of potters, learning as she got older. Then, while she was at school in Fort Worth, TX, she met and married Art Cody (also known as Haungooah).

Art was a Kiowa man who was born at Fort Lawton, OK. After they were married, he moved to her home at Santa Clara. At Santa Clara Martha encouraged Art to get involved in making pottery. He responded by enrolling in ceramics classes at the Institute for American Indian Arts in Santa Fe. He excelled at the artistry of designs and became one of the first artists at Santa Clara to get into sgraffito. Very quickly he and Martha earned a number of awards for their work.

Martha and Art made pottery miniatures together for almost a decade. Then one day in 1981 as she was walking in the vicinity of the Santa Claran ancestral home at Puyé, she was struck and killed by lightning.