For Star subscribers: Each artist receives an unrestricted $50,000 cash award from United States Artists.
Carmen Duarte Two Tucson-based artists, Navajo tapestry weaver Barbara Teller Ornelas and Tohono O'odham poet Ofelia Zepeda, were named 2023 USA Fellows and will each receive an unrestricted $50,000 cash award from United States Artists, a Chicago-based arts funding organization.
Ornelas said the cash award will allow her to take some time off."I put an ex-husband through pharmacy school, and two children through college. I never had a break. This money will let me slow down a bit and buy new equipment for weaving. I am very grateful." Ornelas said her mother and grandmother were master weavers and taught her what her family is known for — tapestry weaving. These pieces are hung on walls, and Ornelas sold many pieces at Two Grey Hills Trading Post where her father was a trader and worked the store for more than 35 years.
When Ornelas was older and it was time to go to grade school, she was sent to Toadlena Boarding School in New Mexico, about 60 miles north of Gallup. She continued her weaving while in boarding school, missing her family for months on end. When she returned home in the summer, she weaved some more, learning more about technique and design work from her older sister Roseann Teller Lee. Her father would take Ornelas and her sisters to Two Grey Hills Trading Post to sell their pieces.
"There were a lot of workers at galleries who believed in me and they taught me how to sell my pieces," explained Ornelas who was guided on where to go and who to see. In 1985, she traveled to London to the Museum of Mankind, which is part of the British Museum, and Ornelas was featured in the American Festival. The festival highlighted diverse communities, including jazz musicians from New Orleans and Chicago, and Native American artists.
O'odham students were in the class to learn to read and write their language."Some of the students were traditional O'odham singers, and when I saw their songs in print I would call it poetry. The O'odham songs became a collection of reading materials," Zepeda said. Zepeda was the middle child in her family, attending elementary and junior high in Stanfield, and then went on to Casa Grande Union High School, graduating in 1972.
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