Acoma Pueblo · New Mexico
The line isthe proof.
Hand-painted pottery in the Acoma tradition, from the oldest continuously inhabited community in North America.
A family tradition in the line of Marie Chino
Hand-painted pottery in the Acoma tradition, from the oldest continuously inhabited community in North America.
Hand-painted by Lucas in his own designs — the fine line, the pattern, the hand. In the Acoma way, the painting is the art.
A potter of Acoma Pueblo, carrying a family tradition close to a thousand years old.
Lucas learned the work from his mother, Frances Concho, and his grandmother, Helen Patricio — first cousin to Marie Chino, one of the matriarchs who brought the old black-on-white designs back into the world. He paints in that continuing line: the same designs, the same discipline, the same hand-work, carried from one generation to the next on the pueblo.
Every design is his own — his take on the Acoma visual language, painted freehand with a yucca brush in the patterns his family has carried for generations. The dense radiant lines that define his work are drawn one at a time, by hand. For his commissioned pieces, he forms and paints himself, by hand, in a traditional-style clay. For the work he brings to shows, he paints onto prepared forms, so that owning his work is possible for more collectors. Either way, the designs, the hand, and the eye are entirely his.
This is the ancestral Acoma process, refined over centuries at the pueblo. It is the tradition Lucas descends from and honors — the source of the designs, the hand-work, and the discipline he carries into every piece he makes.
Native clay, cleaned and tempered, turned white under a slip of kaolin.
Built from the base in ropes of clay, scraped thin and smooth. No mold.
Mineral and plant pigments, the fine lines pulled freehand with a yucca brush.
Fired in the open, the traditional way, into something meant to last.
In a traditional outdoor firing, where a flame touches the surface it leaves a soft dark mark — a fire cloud. In the Acoma tradition it is embraced rather than hidden: a mark of the open fire, and of the hands and the earth that made the pot.
Historic Acoma jars, held today in museum collections — the deep tradition Lucas paints in the line of.
Lucas forms the vessel by hand — coiled, scraped, and shaped in a traditional-style clay — then paints it with the yucca brush in a design developed with you. The most involved work he makes, formed and painted entirely by his hand.
The work he brings to shows and gatherings. Each piece is painted by his hand, in his own designs, with the same yucca brush and the same discipline. One of a kind, made to be lived with, and to travel.
In the Acoma tradition, an artist is known above all for the painting — the designs, the fine line, the hand. Lucas paints his show pieces on prepared forms, and builds his commissioned work from clay start to finish. Either way, every design and every brushstroke is his own.
For the collector buying for someone who has everything — seeking a piece with a story no one else can give.
For families who already hold Southwest pieces passed down through generations, and who find meaning in acquiring from an Acoma artist here in the Northwest.
For collectors of Northwest Coast and Plains work adding their first Acoma piece — who value meeting the artist himself.
Lucas learned the work from his mother, Frances Concho, and his grandmother, Helen Patricio — first cousin to Marie Chino, one of the Acoma matriarchs who rediscovered the black-on-white designs of their Mimbres ancestors and carried them into the modern collector's world. He paints in that unbroken family line.
Lucas shows at a small number of Pacific Northwest gatherings each year, between commissions. You'll find him and his work at:
Dates vary year to year. Write to confirm where he'll be next.
Lucas responds personally to every inquiry.
Email the Artist