Description: Rare Louise Bigmeat Maney Cherokee Blackware Candle Holder. 2.75" Tall3.75" at widest point3 & 1/8 " at opening Great collectible In 1979, Qualla Arts and Crafts Mutual hosted an exhibition of the work of three of the Bigmeat sisters: Elizabeth Bigmeat Jackson, Mabel Bigmeat Swimmer and Louise Bigmeat Maney. The exhibition noted that the “Bigmeat sisters each has developed her own individual methods of firing, coloring, and applying surface designs.”3 A photograph, most likely made by the Indian Arts and Crafts Board, shows a coiled and modeled blackware water pipe by Lizzie Jackson. The base of the pipe is incised with a friendship pattern; along its sides are two modeled lizards. Another form made by Lizzie Jackson was an oil lamp with a shallow stable bowl used to hold oil. The handle of this particular oil lamp has been shaped into the form of a bird. A pot with a totemic figure, such as this one, is also called an effigy pot. To make this piece, earthenware clay was shaped using the coil method and then burnished, before carving and incising the details of the bird’s head into the clay. The sisters acknowledged that the extra income from their pottery helped support the family. Later, as Lizzie’s work matured and she realized the value of her creative gift, she remarked, “Today, the money is not as important as the pleasure that I get from my work.” Qualla Arts and Crafts Mutual exhibition programThe youngest of Charlotte Bigmeat’s daughters, Louise Bigmeat Maney (1932–2001) was, certainly, the most experimental. Louise started out like her sisters, learning pottery from their mother. As the youngest, she began working in clay when she was just six or seven years old. When she was eight, she told her mother that she was “never going to make pottery because we had to work so hard at it.” What sounded like a child’s complaint actually came to pass as Louise struggled with her cultural identity. “It seemed like anything Indian was not okay,” she said, explaining her experience in school. Still, she continued to assist with the pottery until her mother died, when Louise abandoned pottery altogether. “The period following my mother’s death was a non-active time as far as my artwork was concerned. Child rearing, education and helping to provide for a family of seven children took precedence over art and much of my time and energy.”Louise Bigmeat married John Henry Maney (born 1931). Also from Painttown, Maney was descended from a family of well-known basket weavers that included Nancy and Rowena Bradley. After all of the couple’s seven children were enrolled in school, Louise went back to school as well. She finished high school and went on to take college courses during summer. She expanded her skills and education by taking courses at Haywood Community College, Western Carolina University, and the Institute of American Indian Arts. She focused on art and art education, learned how to throw on the potter’s wheel, and mastered the science of mixing glazes. This experience, no doubt, broadened her repertoire of forms and introduced her to other potters. For more than twenty years, Louise Bigmeat Maney worked as an educator; still, she continued to struggle with cultural conflict. Finding the school curriculum lacking, she brought in clay and taught the children how to make beads. Instead of enjoying her contribution, she felt she was “doing something against the rules.” In the late 1950s, Louise Bigmeat Maney returned to her roots as a potter, acknowledging the influence of her mother.
Price: 65 USD
Location: Albuquerque, New Mexico
End Time: 2024-11-14T00:18:59.000Z
Shipping Cost: N/A USD
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Item Specifics
All returns accepted: ReturnsNotAccepted
Origin: Cherokee, NC
Tribal Affiliation: Cherokee
Artisan: Louise Bigmeat Maney
Country/Region of Manufacture: United States
Culture: Native American: US
Handmade: Yes
