Angie Reano Owen — Kewa (Santo Domingo) Mosaic Artist
b. 1946, Santo Domingo (Kewa) Pueblo. Born Angelita Reano. The woman who brought a thousand-year-old technique back to life.
Most artists in this directory extended a living tradition. Angie Reano Owen resurrected a dead one. On a trip to Tucson she stood in front of precontact mosaic inlay — shell and stone laid up in the way Ancestral Pueblo and Hohokam artisans had done it a thousand years ago, a technique that had fallen out of active practice — and she decided to bring it back. She worked out her own version, bonding thin slices of shell and stone with two-part epoxy, at first tinted black with chimney soot and later with a mineral powder [1], and in doing so reconnected Pueblo jewelry to its own deep past. The girl who once sold Thunderbird necklaces on the steps of the Palace of the Governors became the artist credited with reviving Southwestern mosaic inlay.
The Maker
She was born in 1946 at Santo Domingo — now officially Kewa — Pueblo, the New Mexico village long renowned for heishi, the fine hand-rolled shell and stone beadwork. Jewelry was the family trade: her mother, Clara Lovato Reano, was a working jeweler, and Angie was one of eight children who grew up making and selling. After graduating Albuquerque High in 1965, she was turning out Thunderbird-motif necklaces for the tourist market — the family sold on the portal of the Palace of the Governors in Santa Fe, the historic vendors' arcade Native artisans still work today. Then came Tucson, and the ancient mosaics, and everything changed. She married Don Owen and built a body of work that grew, by the 1980s, into elaborate mosaic patterning wrapped around complex organic forms — what one scholar called "an unconventional integration of various prehistoric and postmodern design elements."
The Work
Owen's medium is not silver but mosaic: thin cut slices of turquoise, coral, tiger cowrie, and other shell, arranged into pattern and landscape and set directly onto a shell or organic base — no metal framework doing the structural work. That's what distinguishes it from Zuni channel inlay, where stones sit in carved silver channels; hers is built up stone-to-stone on the shell itself, then sanded smooth. It is the Ancestral Pueblo and Hohokam method, revived and carried forward in a living hand. (In the 1970s, when she began setting some of her mosaic work in silver, she designed a hallmark representing a tiny shell mosaic; she stopped setting work in silver in the early 1980s, and her mosaic work on shell generally carries no stamp. [1])
The Standing
In 1995 Owen was named the Ronald and Susan Dubin Artist Fellow at the School for Advanced Research in Santa Fe — a serious scholarly institution whose Indian Arts Research Center holds her work — and she has taken multiple Best of Division awards at the Santa Fe Indian Market and the Heard Museum Guild Fair. Her jewelry is held in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and the Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Indian. And she built more than a career: she taught the technique to her brother Joe, her sister-in-law, and her children Dean and Donna, and Dean's wife, Rena Williams Owens [1] — the Reano Owen family is now a mosaic-inlay dynasty of its own.
Know more about Angie? Contact T.Skies.
- Bahti, Mark. Silver + Stone + Pardue, Diana F. Contemporary Southwestern Jewelry.
- Angie Reano Owen — Wikipedia
- Angie Reano Owen — Waddell Gallery
- Angie Reano Owen biography — Bischoff's Gallery
- Finger ring by Angie Reano Owen — Smithsonian NMAI
From the Library: Bahti, Silver + Stone: Profiles of American Indian Jewelers (2007)
2007 primary source. Anything described as current here describes 2007, not today.
According to Bahti (2007, p. 140), Reano Owen began making jewelry on her own, with mosaics, in the late 1960s; her mother had done mosaic on shell as a young woman, and Angie first tried the style on earrings. [1]
As Angie Reano Owen told Bahti (2007):
“Me and my brother Percy sat down and figured it out”
— Bahti (2007), p. 140 [1]
Bahti (2007, p. 140) reports that she always used two-part epoxy as her adhesive, at one time tinted black with chimney soot and later with a mineral powder, and that about the mid-1970s she began inlaying in the herringbone pattern that became her signature. [1]
According to Bahti (2007, p. 141), she used both green and blue turquoise, singled out a nice blue Kingman-area stone with brown matrix that she could no longer get, generally worked natural turquoise but used stabilized turquoise for earrings because handling can change the color of natural stone, and finished her inlay through 100-, 220-, 400- and 600-grit before polishing. [1]
Bahti (2007, p. 141) records that in the 1970s she began setting some of her mosaic work in silver and designed a hallmark representing a tiny shell mosaic, but stopped setting work in silver in the early 1980s; for a while she set a small turquoise bead in the back of her mosaics as an alternative mark, then dropped it, saying she was not brought up to put a trademark on her work. [1]
From the Library: Baxter, Encyclopedia of Native American Jewelry (2000)
2000 primary source. Anything described as current here describes 2000, not today.
Baxter (2000) on the old work behind hers:
“Some contemporary fine artists have drawn inspiration directly from Hohokam artifacts, most notably Angie Reano Owen (b. 1945) of Santo Domingo.”
— Baxter (2000), p. 70 [2]
According to Baxter (2000, p. 127), Angie Reano Owen of Santo Domingo was born in 1945. [2]
Baxter (2000) opened her entry on her:
“This artist pays tribute to her Puebloan heritage by creating revival-style jewelry derived from the ancient mosaic work on shell done by the Hohokam and Anasazi.”
— Baxter (2000), p. 127 [2]
As of 2000, Baxter described her method:
“She starts a piece by selecting a shell or cottonwood base. She then glues stones into the base, grinds the stones’ edges to be flush, and then buffs the pieces until they possess lustrous geometric, herringbone, and rectangular patterns.”
— Baxter (2000), p. 127 [2]
From the Library: Tryk, Santa Fe Indian Market (1993)
1993 primary source. Anything described as current here describes 1993, not today.
In her 1993 book on Santa Fe Indian Market, Tryk (1993, p. 28) pictured Angie Reano Owen of Santo Domingo greeting friends and displaying her award-winning jewelry. [3]
According to Tryk (1993, p. 79), Angie Reano Owen studied prehistoric mosaic shell pendants and carved shell bracelets in local museums and made modern interpretations of them; her bracelets, necklaces and earrings of the 1980s caught the public's attention, were a sensation at Indian Market and started a trend. [3]
From the Library: Schaaf, American Indian Jewelry I (2003)
2003 primary source. Anything described as current here describes 2003, not today.
Schaaf (2003) entered her as
“Angie Reano Owen (Angelita Reano Owen)”
— Schaaf (2003), p. 249 [4]
Schaaf (2003, p. 249) recorded Angie Reano Owen as Santo Domingo, born about 1946 and active from the 1960s, a daughter of Joe I. Reano and Clara Lovato Reano, the wife of Don Owen, a niece of Mary Rosetta and a cousin of Johnny Rosetta, with exhibitions at the Millicent Rogers Museum and the Albuquerque International Airport. [4]
Schaaf (2003) recorded among her awards:
“1983, Owen Indian Trading Award, most creative design in Santo Domingo jewelry”
— Schaaf (2003), p. 249 [4]
Schaaf (2003, p. 269) named Angie Reano Owen as the teacher of her brother Frank Reano and of her sister-in-law Charlene Sanchez-Reano. [4]
Schaaf (2003, p. 274) recorded the heishi maker Mary Rosetta as her aunt and Johnny Rosetta as her cousin. [4]
From the Library: Dubin, North American Indian Jewelry and Adornment (1999)
1999 primary source. Anything described as current here describes 1999, not today.
As of 1999, Dubin wrote:
“Like her ancestors, Owens has traveled to California to buy the shells needed for her work.”
— Dubin (1999), p. 501 [5]
Field Notes by Mateo James
An earlier version of this page said no maker's mark was documented for Angie Reano Owen, credited her adhesive to a family secret, and listed Rena among her children. Bahti's 2007 profile, which she reviewed, records a tiny shell-mosaic hallmark on her silver-set work of the 1970s (p. 141), two-part epoxy as her adhesive (p. 140), and Rena Williams Owens as her son Dean's wife (p. 139). We have corrected the page to her own account.
I noticed that our profile says no maker's mark is documented for Angie Reano Owen, while Bahti (2007, p. 141) records a hallmark representing a tiny shell mosaic on her silver-set work of the 1970s, and for a time a small turquoise bead set in the back of her mosaics. Bahti's profile was built from her own interview, so on this point it is the stronger source. Most of her mosaic work, on shell, would still carry no stamp.
Our profile gives 1946 for Angie's birth. Baxter's 2000 encyclopedia gives 1945. I show both years.
Sources
- Bahti, Mark. Silver + Stone: Profiles of American Indian Jewelers. Tucson: Rio Nuevo Publishers, 2007. Cited by printed page. Statements describe conditions as of 2007.
- Baxter, Paula A., with Allison Bird-Romero. Encyclopedia of Native American Jewelry: A Guide to History, People, and Terms. Phoenix: Oryx Press, 2000. Cited by printed page. Statements describe conditions as of 2000.
- Tryk, Sheila. Santa Fe Indian Market: Showcase of Native American Art. Photography by Mark Nohl; introduction by Allan Houser. Santa Fe, NM: Tierra Publications, in cooperation with SWAIA (Southwestern Association on Indian Affairs), 1993. Cited by printed page. Statements describe conditions as of 1993.
- Schaaf, Gregory, with Angie Yan Schaaf. American Indian Jewelry I: 1,200 Artist Biographies, ca. 1800-present. American Indian Art Series, Vol. 5. Santa Fe: CIAC Press, 2003. Cited by printed page. Statements describe conditions as of 2003.
- Dubin, Lois Sherr. North American Indian Jewelry and Adornment: From Prehistory to the Present. Original photography by Togashi, Paul Jones, and others. New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1999. Cited by printed page. Statements describe conditions as of 1999.
This profile is maintained in support of Native American silversmiths and compiled from published references. See something inaccurate, or want to add to it? Contact us.