Artist

Faye Tso

born Tuba City, Navajo Nation, AZ 1933
Media - tso_faye.jpg - 90555
Originally photographed by Chuck Rosenak. Image is courtesy of the Chuck and Jan Rosenak research material, 1990-1999, in the Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Also known as
  • Faye Bilagody
Born
Tuba City, Navajo Nation, Arizona, United States
Biography

Faye Tso was one of the first Navajo potters to use unconventional imagery in her ceramic pots. Traditional Navajo pottery has very little decoration, but Tso applied images of corn maidens, warriors, and dancers onto the surface of the clay. She is a practicing Navajo herbalist, and her husband and a son are both medicine men. The family often uses Tsos pottery in their ceremonies, because "fire, cloud, and earth are all part of the Navajo way" (Chuck and Jan Rosenak, The People Speak: Navajo Folk Art, 1994).