Artist

Lorraine Williams

born Sweetwater, Navajo Nation, AZ 1955
Media - williams_lorraine.jpg - 90566
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
  • Tsi Yazzie
  • Lorraine Yazzie
Born
Sweetwater, Navajo Nation, Arizona, United States
Active in
  • Cortez, Colorado, United States
Biography

Lorraine Williams was given the name Tsi (daughter) by her father, a Navajo medicine man, and her mother, an herbalist. She didn't begin working in clay until her marriage to George Williams, son of the famous Navajo ceramist, Rose Williams. Lorraine was inspired by her mother-in-law and would watch her make pottery, while "pretending that I wasn't," and then go home and try it herself. For good luck, Williams used to travel fifty miles to her hometown in Navajo Nation, Arizona, to fire her pots in an open pit; today, she burns cedar bark in a neighbor's fireplace to create the same effects (Chuck and Jan Rosenak, The People Speak: Navajo Folk Art, 1994).