Wendy Ponca facts for kids

Wendy Ponca (born 1960) is an Osage artist, teacher, and fashion designer. She is well-known for her amazing Native American fashion creations. From 1982 to 1993, she taught design and Fiber Arts at the Institute of American Indian Arts (IAIA) in Santa Fe. Later, she also taught at the University of Las Vegas.

Wendy Ponca won first place awards for her modern Native American fashion. She earned these awards at the Santa Fe Indian Market every year from 1982 to 1987. Her beautiful artwork is shown in several museums. These include the IAIA, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Philbrook Museum of Art, and the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of the American Indian.

Early Life and Education

Kimberly Ann Ponca, who goes by Wendy, was born in Texas in 1960. Her parents were Barbara Ann and Carl Ponca. She grew up near the McDonald Observatory in Fort Davis, Texas. Her father was an Osage Nation artist and teacher. He grew up on the Osage Reservation in Oklahoma. Her mother was an interior designer. They met while studying art in Kansas City.

After high school, Wendy Ponca began her art studies. She attended the Institute of American Indian Arts (IAIA) in Santa Fe, New Mexico. There, she learned "Traditional Techniques" from Sandy Fife Wilson. In 1977, she even hosted a fashion show for the IAIA. After finishing at IAIA in 1977, she studied art in New York and weaving in Greece.

Ponca then went to the Kansas City Art Institute. She earned her bachelor's degree in Fiber arts in 1982. She later completed a master's degree in art therapy at Southwestern College of Santa Fe.

Wendy Ponca's Career in Fashion

After getting her bachelor's degree, Ponca worked as a costume designer. This was at the Santa Fe Opera in 1982. Around the same time, she started her own company, Waves of the Earth Fashion Group. This company helped her sell her fashion designs.

After the opera season, she became a teacher at IAIA. She taught the "Traditional Techniques" course. She also taught Fashion Design. She was known for teaching students how to make patterns and tailor clothes. She made sure their garments were well-made. In 1987, her "Traditional Techniques" course was renamed Fiber Arts. This made it easier for students to transfer credits to other universities. The course included Native American crafts like beadwork and weaving. It also covered dyeing and design.

Ponca and her students held fashion shows under the Waves of the Earth name. This helped students learn how to market their designs. They also took part in the annual Santa Fe Indian Market fashion show. This show featured clothes designed by IAIA students.

Showing Her Designs

As a designer, Ponca preferred to show her work in fashion shows. She felt that art galleries often wanted only traditional Native garments. They were less open to new ideas. By showing her work at the Santa Fe Indian Market, Ponca won first place awards. She won for her modern designs every year from 1982 to 1987. After seven years, she decided to try other places to show her work.

In the mid-1980s, she helped start a group called Native Influx. It was later renamed Native Uprising. This group allowed artists, designers, and models to work together. They shared in creating and earning money from their shows. It was one of the first groups where Native American artists cooperated. The group wanted to help Native Americans succeed in the fashion world. They combined new designs with traditional Native American symbols and customs.

Art and Materials

In her two-dimensional art during the 1980s and 1990s, Ponca used many different materials. These included abalone shell, antlers, buckskin, felt, and metal. She used these to create collages. She also made blankets, shawls, and wall hangings. Her work often included themes from different cultures. She also created pieces that highlighted Osage themes.

In the 1990s, she started using Mylar in her fashion designs. Mylar is a polyester film first used in space travel. She liked how it draped and the sound it made when models walked. It also reminded her of the sky. This fit her collection that showed the Sky and Earth moieties of Osage people. She also experimented with body painting for her models. These designs were inspired by old Osage tattooing practices. The body paintings often showed Osage symbols like spiders and snakes. They also featured floral or ribbonwork patterns.

Later Work and Exhibitions

Ponca left IAIA in 1993. The school stopped offering its fashion program a few years later. She continued to take part in big fashion events. These included Indian Chic: An American Indian Fashion Show in 1998. She also directed Culture Embodied and Culture Embodied II for IAIA in 2000.

In 1995, Pendleton Woolen Mills asked Ponca to design four special edition blankets. These blankets were shown at an exhibition in 2000. After teaching at the University of Las Vegas, Ponca moved to Fairfax, Oklahoma. She continues to design and show her creations. She also worked as the Director of Development for Tulsa's National Indian Monument Institute.

Ponca's collection Wedding Clothes of the Earth and Sky People was shown at the Osage Tribal Museum in 2013. In 2016, Pendleton released another limited edition blanket designed by Ponca. Money from its sales went to help the Osage Nation Foundation. That same year, she showed her work at the Philbrook Museum. This was part of the Native Fashion Now exhibition. This show traveled around the country before being shown at the National Museum of the American Indian. Wendy Ponca's art is displayed at IAIA, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Philbrook Museum of Art, and the National Museum of the American Indian.