Gerónima Cruz Montoya's selection as the Indian Market poster artist for 2010 had its beginning decades ago, when a young girl climbed into the wagon to ride from San Juan Pueblo to attend the Santa Fe Indian School.

"She told me about coming to town on the wagon, stopping at Tesuque for lunch and making it down the hill as the sun was setting to join her sisters at the Indian school," said Bruce Bernstein, executive director of the Southwestern Association for Indian Arts, sponsoring group for the annual Santa Fe Indian Market.

At the school, Montoya took up painting, training with Dorothy Dunn in the Art Studio, eventually succeeding Dunn as its teacher after graduating as the 1935 school valedictorian. About her mentor, Montoya said, "She was a wonderful person, and a wonderful teacher. She was very understanding about Indian people."

Inspired, Montoya painted what she knew and revealed who she was — a traditional Pueblo woman using her art to preserve culture and tradition on canvas. She still paints in her Santa Fe kitchen, sitting down at the table when the mood hits her to paint those life-like scenes of Pueblo life.

The painting chosen for the 2010 poster, Pueblo Crafts, was created by Montoya in 1938 (the original hangs in the Museum of Indian Arts and Culture). It was unveiled Thursday at a luncheon at Vanessie of Santa Fe, and will be the image of the 89th Annual Santa Fe Indian Market this year.

On the poster are a series of young women in traditional clothing. They are making pottery, weaving, embroidering, finishing up moccasins, all traditional crafts for Pueblo people. "Doing the old things brings back memories from years ago, the things that just aren't done much any more," said Montoya, who turns 95 in September.

For many of those years, she has been a part of Indian Market. Her mother brought her pottery to sell in the early days of market. Later, Montoya sold her paintings and served on the board of SWAIA. To this day, she can be found each market under the portal at the Palace of the Governors. With her are family members (her boys and sister Ramoncita Sandoval), while friends and collectors over the years stop to visit throughout the weekend.

Those same family members gathered with Montoya as she was honored on Thursday. A granddaughter bought a delicate rose corsage for her grandmother to wear with her bright turquoise top. Her three sons — Bob, Paul and Gene — were there, along with her sister, other grandchildren and many other relatives.

After the talking was done, just before lunch, members of the Tewa choir from St. John the Baptist Church at the pueblo filed their way in. In addition to teaching and making art, Montoya is a devout Catholic who has sung in the choir for years.

Despite staying in Santa Fe after graduating from high school, she remained a traditional Pueblo woman as well, traveling back to Ohkay Owingeh (the traditional name for San Juan Pueblo) for feast days, dances and other occasions. Her late husband, Juan, came from Sandia Pueblo.

She taught at the Indian School until the early 1960s, influencing such artists as Narciso Abeyta, Harrison Begay, Ben Quintana and Joe Herrera. Her son, Paul, said that his mother followed Dunn's model: "She let the artist be himself." While teaching and raising a family, she finished college in 1958 at St. Joseph's College in Albuquerque.

"She came out of the golden era," Bernstein said of Montoya's art, noting that she was a contemporary of Georgia O'Keeffe. Her selection, though, "is not a nostalgic look back. There's nothing sentimental about it. This is looking forward ... She always looks forward."

In the 1960s, when Indian art took a new direction, the painting style of the studio school became less valued, and Montoya left her teaching spot. With her family established in Santa Fe — the boys attended St. Francis Catholic School and St. Michael's High School, and her husband, Juan, in a good job — Montoya found a new way to contribute.

"They wanted to relocate her out to the middle of the Navajo reservation," said her son, Bob. "She said, 'no way.' "

Instead, she started adult education at Ohkay Owingeh, and ended up helping establish the Oke-Oweenge Arts Cooperative. She also was in on the beginnings of the Eight Northern Indian Arts & Crafts Fair and has received a Lifetime Achievement Award from SWAIA.

"She was our mom," said Bob, "but she knew a lot of people — art and museum people, and they were always coming by. She was always on committees.

"It wasn't really until after, when we were out of high school and college that we realized the impact that she had on Pueblo people. We would go to the pueblos, or to Hopi, and people would say, 'Gerónima, how are you?' Everyone knew her."

Her contribution, Bernstein said, comes through her art, her mentorship of students, but also because of her continued presence across two centuries as a both witness to Pueblo life and the changing Native art world.

Choosing her as the 2010 poster artist was simply a "no-brainer."

Contact Inez Russell at irussell@sfnewmexican.com.

LEARN MORE

You can read the life story of Gerónima Cruz Montoya, or P'otsúnú, in The Worlds of P'otsúnú, by Jeanne Shutes and Jill Mellick. The book was published in 1996 by the University of New Mexico Press.