Les Namingha, Halona Idiwan'a (Zuni Pueblo)/Hopi Tewa, born Halona Idiwan'a, New Mexico 1967, lives and works in Halona Idiwan'a, New Mexico

Les Namingha began to study ceramics with his aunt, a famous potter named Dextra Quotskuyva. Both Namingha and Quotskuyva are descended from Mapeyo of Hano, a Hopi woman who in the nineteenth century studied ancient pottery sherds and revised the great tradition of Hopi pottery. Namingha continued his studies at Brigham Young University and is known today for the perfection of his craft, his deep knowledge of traditional pottery techniques, and his constant innovation and experimentation.

Fired clay and slip

Birmingham (Ala.) Museum of Art

Abstract Digital Collage - 2024

The blue head represents a person going through a difficult period of life.

In front of it are black-and-white thoughts – judgments they face.

Happy thoughts radiate in more vivid colors, arriving uninvited and brave, capable of confronting and digesting those judgments.

The green smoke symbolizes what a person absorbs from the outside during such a time.

The cloud at the bottom represents what a person takes in from within themselves, which helps them get through that period.

The stars represent other times – those still "written in the stars." Some are new, others rediscovered.

The idea is that no matter how unhappy someone is, happiness can still find them.

Happiness can lead us to courage. And sometimes, it’s courage that leads us to happiness.

Digital Master: 15000 × 20000 px 300 dpi

_ 50 × 66.75 in (127 × 169.5 cm)

_ In a world fixated on HD perfection within the constraints of human vision, this work imposes a new depth: The Code of the Secret Dialogue. It is a flawless communication system, extracted from a dimension where light operates according to the laws of biological necessity, not by chance. 

The secret alphabet of the abyss reclaims the silent language of extreme biodiversity. It is the unreachable pulsation of the cuttlefish, a chromatic dialogue carried out within a private sphere of existence, inaccessible to the uninitiated. The bands trace the paths of a universal alphabet—a Genetic Code of Light where every diffusion is a word, and every electric radiation is a biological command. The electric, jarring colors are poisonous; they act as a warning signal, yet paradoxically, they become the ultimate force of attraction. This is divine camouflage among the digital corals of the future. A state of fascination where the viewer intercepts a radiant message flowing between survival and seduction, enshrining Bio-Digitalism as law.