Jason D. Garcia (Okuu Pin'/Turtle Mountain)

Santa Clara Pueblo, born 1973

BiographyJason Garcia is from the Santa Clara Pueblo Tewa tribe. He also goes by Okuu Pinn, which means “turtle mountain”. Garcia grew up in an artistic family known for their pottery. He was also influenced by comic imagery and used traditional Pueblo techniques to create images of Star Wars and Spiderman. The work of Pablita Velarde, a well-known Santa Clara Pueblo painter, was also a big influence on Garcia. Garcia’s work documents the changes in the Pueblo by incorporating modern images such as television and cell phones. His work connects past with present and future generations of the Pueblo community using contemporary iconography. Garcia is also attuned to the history of the people of Santa Clara. His Tewa Tales of Suspense! series consists of seven works that depict the Pueblo Revolt of 1680, in which the Pueblo people fought against the Spanish colonizers in a bloody battle which killed 400 Spaniards and drove the remaining 2,000 settlers out of the province. Tewa Tales of Suspense! is presented in bright colors and a comic-book format. Garcia’s work is included in the collections of many public institutions, including the Smithsonian Institution National Museum of the American Indian and the National Museum of American History, both in Washington, D.C.

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