Mornings with O’Keeffe | A Conversation with Charine Pilar Gonzales, Marita Swazo Hinds, Eliza Naranjo Morse, and Martha Romero

Charine Pilar Gonzales (San Ildefonso Pueblo) “Ku’yan Povi/Turquoise Flower” is a Tewa filmmaker from San Ildefonso Pueblo and Santa Fe, New Mexico. Her documentary Our Quiyo: Maria Martinez (2022) premiered at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and was followed by River Bank (Pō-Kehgeh). She co-produced the Sundance-premiered short documentary Winding Path (2024), serves as associate producer on the People of the West series, and produces for the Native Lens project. Gonzales is the owner of Povi Studios.

Gonzales holds a BFA in Cinematic Arts from the Institute of American Indian Arts and a BA in English Communication from Fort Lewis College. A 2024 Native Lab Fellow with the Sundance Institute Indigenous Program, she is currently enrolled in IAIA’s MFACW Screenwriting program. Additional fellowships include the First Peoples Fund and the Jackson Wild Summit. She lives in Santa Fe with her family.

Marita Swazo Hinds (Tesuque Pueblo) is a potter who works with micaceous, hand-gathered clay and has employed traditional outdoor firing techniques for more than a decade. She has studied at the Poeh Cultural Center under instructors including Shawn Tafoya, Michael Bancroft, and Eric Fender. In 2024, she received a grant supporting the revitalization of Tesuque pottery traditions.

Hinds contributed to the curatorial collective for Grounded in Clay: The Spirit of Pueblo Pottery, exhibited at the Museum of Indian Arts and Culture, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. She emphasizes sustaining cultural traditions and mentoring tribal potters, and currently works in education at the Museum of Indian Arts and Culture.

Eliza Naranjo Morse (Kha’p’o Owingeh/Santa Clara Pueblo) is a multidisciplinary artist working across painting, sculpture, land-based art, and institutional collaboration. She has partnered with organizations including the National Museum of Women in the Arts, the National Museum of the American Indian, and the Museum of Contemporary Native Art. As Cultural Arts Teacher at Kha’p’o Community School, Morse integrates land-based art into curricula to strengthen students’ environmental relationships. A graduate of Skidmore College, she continues to develop artistic, educational, and ecological work exploring humanity’s relationship with the universe through knowledge sharing.

Martha Romero (Pueblo of Nambé) “Kwahtenbay/Rainbow” is a potter from the Pueblo of Nambé whose artistic path was shaped by her mother, Rose Alice Garcia-Baca, and teachings surrounding mother clay. Romero studied with pottery masters Clarence Cruz, Pamela Lujan-Hauer, and Michael Bancroft through the Poeh Cultural Center. She prioritizes working with tribal members—including youth—to sustain traditional pottery practices and mentors artists within Nambé Pueblo.

Romero has also provided micaceous pottery instruction for the School of Advanced Research and Ghost Ranch. Her work highlights pottery’s utilitarian role, often demonstrated through cooking and care practices for functional vessels such as bean pots.

She participated in the Pueblo Pottery Collective for Grounded in Clay: The Spirit of Pueblo Pottery, organized by the School of Advanced Research and the Vilcek Foundation. Romero received a Congressional Record from Michelle Lujan Grisham in recognition of her artistic contributions and has exhibited work at SWAIA events, the Poeh Cultural Center, the Museum of Indian Arts and Culture, and the Heard Museum Guild Indian Fair & Market.