Ralph Aragon facts for kids

Ralph Aragon (born in 1944) is a talented artist from the San Felipe Pueblo in New Mexico. He is known for his amazing paintings and pottery. He lives at Zia Pueblo, where he moved after getting married.

Ralph Aragon is famous for his special pottery. He makes it using a method called coil-building. This is where you roll clay into long ropes, then stack them up to create the pot's shape. He paints his pottery with both soft and bright colors. He also uses traditional Pueblo symbols and designs that look like ancient rock carvings, called petroglyphs.

Ralph Aragon's Early Life and Learning

Ralph Aragon was born in San Felipe Pueblo. Later, he married someone from Zia Pueblo and moved there. He went to school at the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe, New Mexico. This is where he learned many of his art skills.

His Art Career

Ralph Aragon has had a very successful art career. He started as a painter, creating art on canvases. He also painted large pictures on walls, known as murals. Later, he began painting on pottery and even on gourds (a type of dried fruit used for crafts).

His artwork has been shown in important exhibitions. In 1965, his paintings were part of the Second Annual Invitational Exhibition of American Indian Paintings. This show was held by the United States Department of the Interior. His work was also featured in the "Young American Indian Artists" exhibition. This show traveled from 1965 to 1966 and was seen at the Riverside Museum in New York.

One of Ralph Aragon's notable works is a mural he painted. It features two beautiful buckskin horses. One horse is white, and the other is yellow. This mural can be seen on the front of the Nuestra Señora de la Asunción church in Zia Pueblo.