Honored at the 1998 Santa Fe Indian Market for his Hopi and Zuni style pottery and non-traditional painting, he learned pottery on the Hopi reservation in Arizona from his aunt, Dextra Nampeyo. He combines traditional motifs with modernist influences such as designs of Paul Klee and Vasily Kandinsky, and in his personal life, he combines the Mormon religion with his Native American heritage.

He was born into a family of renowned Indian artists, and his mother was Zuni and his father was part Tewa and part Hopi. For him, a life-changing event occurred when he was eleven and his mother decided he should be educated in Salt Lake City in a Mormon educational program, which placed Indian children with Mormon families to attend public scho...