LES NAMINGHA, POTTER - PAINTER

Les Namingha was born in 1967 at Zuni Pueblo in western New Mexico. His mother is a native of Zuni and his father was from the Hopi tribe of northern Arizona.

EDUCATION
Les Namingha loved art from as far back as his memory goes and remembers “from a very early age” spending lots of time drawing and playing with designs. After high school, while on a church mission in England, he began to seriously think about his future. In the summer of 1989, after his return to the United States, he began learning the “painstaking, patience testing,” art of pottery making. It was then that he turned to his Hopi Aunt Dextra Quotskuyva (Nampeyo) who, with great patience, helped him to learn. “She taught me everything,” he commented, she “helped me through the whole process, from molding to sanding to polishing to painting. At the time, I was learning side-by-side with my cousin, Steve Lucas [and we] learned from each other, too, sharing experiments, and testing different slips.”

Les also enrolled at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah where he majored in design, although painting was his primary interest. By the time he graduated, with a BA in design, Les was fully committed to the abstract expressionist school of painting.