Adobe Gallery Blog

What is known today as a Storyteller Figurine had its beginning in 1964 from the hands of Cochiti Pueblo potter Helen Cordero.  Alexander Girard, the noted architect and major folk art collector, saw a figurine by Helen at a Santo Domingo feast day arts and crafts booth and requested that she make more and larger ones and bring them to him.  At the time, these were simple human figurines. 

When Cordero began thinking about his requests, she made a male figurine and added a child in its lap.  He liked it and asked her to make more, make them larger, and add more children. Later, based on her remembering that her grandfather was a storyteller at the pueblo, she made larger figurines and added more children in remembrance of him.  Her creation, based on her grandfather, was the beginning of the storyteller figurine tradition at Cochiti Pueblo.

Read more about this storyteller here..