Wendy Ponca facts for kids

Wendy Ponca (born 1960) is an amazing artist, teacher, and fashion designer from the Osage Nation. She is famous for her unique 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 won first place awards for her modern Native American fashion at the Santa Fe Indian Market every year from 1982 to 1987. You can see her beautiful artwork in many places. 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.

Wendy Ponca's Early Life

Kimberly Ann Ponca, who everyone knows as Wendy, was born in 1960 in Texas. Her parents were Barbara Ann (Furr) and Carl Ponca. She grew up near the McDonald Observatory close to Fort Davis, Texas.

Her father, Carl Ponca, was an Osage Nation artist and teacher. He grew up on the Osage Reservation in Fairfax, Oklahoma. Her mother was an interior designer. They met while studying at the Kansas City Institute of Technology and Design.

After high school, Wendy started her art studies at the Institute of American Indian Arts (IAIA) in Santa Fe, New Mexico. She learned "Traditional Techniques" from Sandy Fife Wilson. In 1977, Wendy was the host for a fashion show put on by IAIA.

After IAIA, she studied art in New York and weaving in Greece. Wendy then went to the Kansas City Art Institute. She earned her bachelor's degree in Fiber arts in 1982. Later, she got a master's degree in art therapy from Southwestern College of Santa Fe.

Wendy Ponca's Career in Art and Fashion

After finishing her first degree, Wendy Ponca started working as a costume designer. This was at the Santa Fe Opera in 1982. Around the same time, she started her own company called Waves of the Earth Fashion Group. This was to sell her fashion designs.

When the opera season ended, she was hired to teach at IAIA. She taught the "Traditional Techniques" course. She also taught Fashion Design. Wendy was known for teaching students about patternmaking, tailoring, and making sure clothes were strong.

In 1987, the "Traditional Techniques" course became "Fiber Arts." This made it easier for students to transfer credits to other universities. The course used Native American materials like beadwork and weaving. It also taught about dyeing and design for different types of art.

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

Why Wendy Chose Fashion Shows

As a designer, Wendy liked to show her work in fashion shows instead of art galleries. Gallery owners often wanted very traditional Native clothes. They were not as open to new ideas or outside influences.

By showing her designs at the Santa Fe Indian Market, Wendy won first place awards. She won for contemporary design 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 later changed its name to Native Uprising. This group allowed artists, designers, and models to work together. They shared in creating shows and earning money from them. It was the first time Native American artists cooperated in this way.

The group focused on helping Native Americans succeed in the fashion world. They combined new designs with traditional American Indian symbols and cultural practices.

Wendy's Two-Dimensional Art

In the 1980s and 1990s, Wendy also created two-dimensional art. She used a mix of materials like abalone shells, antlers, buckskin, felt, and metal. She used these to make collages.

She also made blankets, shawls, and wall hangings. Her art often included themes from different Native American cultures. She also created special items that showed Osage themes.

New Materials and Ideas in Fashion

In the 1990s, Wendy 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 fashion collection that showed the Sky and Earth moieties of the Osage people. She also tried body painting for her models. This was 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 Career and Exhibitions

Wendy left IAIA in 1993. She kept taking part in big fashion events. For example, she was in 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 Wendy to design four special blankets. These blankets were shown at an exhibition in 2000. After teaching at the University of Las Vegas, Wendy moved to Fairfax, Oklahoma. She continues to design and show her creations.

She has also been the Director of Development for the National Indian Monument Institute in Tulsa. Wendy's collection Wedding Clothes of the Earth and Sky People was shown at the Osage Tribal Museum in 2013.

In 2016, Pendleton released another special blanket designed by Wendy. Money from these blankets helped the Osage Nation Foundation. That same year, she showed her work at the Philbrook Museum in the Native Fashion Now exhibition. This show traveled around the country.

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.