Dolores Lewis

Acoma Pueblo

Dolores Lewis was born into Acoma Pueblo in 1938. Her mother was the famous Lucy Lewis, one of the Matriarchs of the Acoma Pottery Revival. Like her brothers Drew and Ivan, and sisters Emma and Carmel, Dolores grew up watching their mother make pottery. But Dolores says that when it came to making her own pottery, she was mostly self-taught.

She says she was most inspired by Ancestral Puebloan shapes and ancient Mimbres designs. Living at Acoma, the ground she walks on is littered with potsherds from both cultures as both sort of overlapped at Acoma nine hundred years ago.

The Lewis family keeps the same ancient designs and has not moved to a contemporary style because it is very important to them to keep true traditions and designs of the ancient Mimbres people alive. Some of the designs Dolores replicated are the deer-with-heart-line, the lightning bolt and many variations of the Mimbres patterns.

Dolores creates pottery in traditional Acoma black-on-white, or black-and-orange-on-white styles decorated with deer-with-heart-line, hoof prints and other animal designs.