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Al Qöyawayma

born 1938 Los Angeles, California

BiographyBorn in Los Angeles, California in 1938, Al Qöyawayma, a Hopi potter, grew up in the San Fernando Valley. In the mid-1960s, studied pottery with his aunt Polingaysi Qöyawayma (also known as Elizabeth White), an accomplished potter and educator, to whom he attributes his style. He also studied ceramics and art at Arizona State University, Scottsdale Community College, and Scottsdale Artist’s School. He began making pottery for the market around 1970.

Qöyawayma’s pottery uses carved and figurative sculpted reliefs with tradition coil construction He has studied ancient Sikyatki ceramics and often uses designs inspired by the ancient ceramics, as well as his background in engineering. In addition to pottery, Al does work in bronze.

Qöyawayma is also an engineer and hydrologist, with a masters degree in engineering from the University of Southern California. He owns patents on Inertial Guidance Systems, an advanced aerospace navigation system, and is the co-founder of the American Indian Science and Engineering Society. He received a Fulbright Fellowship to assist the Maori people reestablish their ceramic traditions. He has consulted with the Smithsonian Institution on Sikyatki ceramics.

In 2002, astronaut Joh Herrington, a member of the Chickasaw tribe, took one of Qöyawayma’s pots into orbit on the Space Shuttle Endeavor during mission STS-113 to the International Space Station. That pot is now in collection of the National Museum of the American Indian.

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