Iva Casuse Honwynum facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Iva Casuse Honwynum
Iva Casuse Honwynum's Whirlwind (Bringer of Rain) pootsaya basket shown at the Heard Museum Guild Indian Fair and Market, 2017
Born	Iva Lee Casuse 1964 (age 60–61) Gallup, New Mexico
Nationality	Hopi Tribe, Navajo Tribe, American
Movement	Hopi basketry
Awards	Artist-in-Residence Eiteljorg Museum of American Indians and Western Art Many awards at Heard, Santa Fe, and Prescott Indian Markets' juried shows

Iva Casuse Honwynum (born in 1964) is a talented artist from the Hopi and Navajo tribes. She is also a social activist and works to keep her culture alive. Honwynum is famous for her amazing woven baskets and sculptures.

Her biggest artistic achievement is creating the pootsaya basket. This new type of basket is considered a "rare innovation" in Hopi basket making. She developed the pootsaya in 2014 while she was an artist-in-residence at the School for Advanced Research in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

About Iva Casuse Honwynum

Iva Casuse Honwynum was born in Gallup, New Mexico. Her father, Richard Casuse, was Navajo, and her mother, Shirley Casuse, was Hopi. Iva belongs to the Sun Clan from the village of Songoopavi on Second Mesa, Arizona. Her Hopi name, Honwynum, means "Female Bear Walking."

Iva started her art career in 1992 as a silversmith and jewelry maker. She learned many techniques from her father and other skilled artists. These techniques included Hopi overlay, which layers metals, and lost-wax casting, a way to make metal sculptures.

Iva is also an expert in traditional Hopi basket making. She makes both coiled baskets (called poota) and sifter baskets (called tutsaya). Her grandmother, Esther Honanie, taught her how to make her first coiled basket when Iva was just ten years old. Iva started weaving baskets again in 1996 and learned more from her cousin, Beth Dawahongnewa. By 2006, she began showing her baskets in art shows and contests, where her unique style really shined.

Hopi Basket Art

Honwynum creates traditional Hopi baskets using special materials from her homeland. These include yucca, willow, and three-leaf sumac plants. These natural materials give her baskets colors like white, green, yellow, black, and red. She also uses store-bought dyes to add more colors to her designs.

Her baskets feature different kinds of designs. Some have geometric shapes, while others show pictures or figures. She even adds three-dimensional parts to her baskets, like a domed tortoise shell or small sculptures of ladles and sandals.

Iva also likes to mix old weaving methods with modern ideas. For example, she made a sifter basket with the logo of the Denver Broncos, her favorite football team! She also creates big story-telling artworks. One project, Where the Sun Fits In, tells the Hopi migration story. It includes symbols from six different Hopi clans: lizard, water, tobacco, badger, fire, and sun.

The Pootsaya Basket

Iva Honwynum created a new type of basket called the pootsaya. This basket combines features of both the sifter and coiled baskets. She developed this unique style during her artist residency in Santa Fe, New Mexico, in 2014. She had thought about this project for many years.

For Hopi people, art and images have deep meaning. So, Iva wanted her new basket to have a special purpose. She explored old Hopi symbols and stories, like a spider and its web or a whirlwind. She places a main image in the center of the pootsaya basket. Then, the sifter part around it reflects and adds to the central design.

Experts have praised Iva's new basket. Andrew Higgins, from the Arizona State Museum, said her pootsaya is "a truly unique piece of artwork." Diane Dittemore, a curator at the same museum, called it "a rare innovation in Hopi basketry."

Shows, Awards, and Collections

Iva Honwynum shows her art at many important events. These include big Native American art markets like the Prescott Indian Art Market, the Heard Museum Guild Indian Fair & Market, and the Santa Fe Indian Market. These shows have judges who pick the best artworks.

She has won many awards for her baskets. Some of her top awards include:

• 1st Place for Contemporary Basketry (for a pootsaya) at the 2018 Santa Fe Indian Market.
• Best of Division and First Place awards at the Eiteljorg Museum of American Indians and Western Art in 2015 and 2016.
• Best of Category Sifter Baskets at the Gallup Indian Intertribal Celebration in 2011.
• Innovation Award and Judge's Award at the 2022 Heard Museum Guild Indian Fair and Market.

Iva's pootsaya baskets are so important that they are kept in the permanent collections of museums. You can find them at the Arizona State Museum in Tucson and the School for Advanced Research Museum in Santa Fe.

Iva was also chosen as an Artist-in-Residence at the Eiteljorg Museum of American Indians and Western Art in 2013. The next year, she received a special fellowship at the School for Advanced Research in Santa Fe.

Iva often gives talks about Hopi art and weaving. She also does demonstrations to show how she creates her beautiful baskets. In 2021, the Arizona Office of Tourism and the U.S. Parks Service featured her in videos and interviews. She talked about her art journey and Hopi culture.

Community Work

Iva Honwynum is also a social activist and helps build her community. She works hard to keep Hopi culture alive. She has supported programs for young people, education, and health. She also focuses on helping the arts, the Hopi language, and traditional Hopi food.

She is helping to update a Hopi cookbook. This project is with the Hopi Community Health Representative Office and the University of Arizona. She also helped write an article about how Hopi women use traditional foods.

Iva owns her own art gallery called Iskasokpu Gallery on Second Mesa, Arizona. This gallery helps promote other Hopi artists. The name Iskasokpu means "the spring where the coyote burped." Iva also teaches Hopi cooking classes and offers catering.

Personal Life

Iva Honwynum has four sons. She went to Yavapai Community College and Northland Pioneer College. She is related to another very skilled basket maker, Adeline Lomayestewa. Both women taught basketry techniques to Reba Ann Lomayestewa.