Education
Blue Corn attended school at the pueblo in her early years.
Blue Corn attended school at the pueblo in her early years.
Her grandmother first introduced her to pottery making at the age of three. Maria Martinez’s sister gave her the name “Blue Corn” during the naming ceremony, which is the Native American tradition of naming a child. She then went to Santa Fe Indian School, which was 24 miles (39 km) from home.
Here she worked as a maid for a short time in Beverly Hills.
Together they settled at San Ildefonso, where she bore and raised 10 children. During World World War II, Blue Corn worked as a housecleaner in Los Alamos for the physicist, J. Robert Oppenheimer.
Santiago quit his job to help her carve, paint and design her pots, and by the late 1960s she had established herself as a leader in polychrome styles. During the 1960s and 70s, she conducted many workshops on pottery making in both the United States. and Canada.
Although Blue Corn also made redware and blackware, she is especially noted for her finely polished slips and exhaustive experimentations with clays and colors, producing cream polychrome on jars and plates.
She is particularly well known for her feather and cloud designs. Blue Corn is known for the re-introduction of polychrome fine whiteware and has received critical acclaim from several publications including the Wall Street Journal. Her pottery can be found in the Smithsonian Institution and other leading museums throughout America and Europe as well as in private collections.