Michael Bird Romero
King Fellow 2002
Michael
Bird Romero is a jeweler/silversmith of San Juan and Taos Pueblo
descent. He is a graduate
of Sandia High School in Albuquerque and was enlisted with the U.S.
Marine Corps serving in Vietnam during 1966 and 1967.
Romero
began making jewelry about 1970 and credits three men as his mentors.
Mark Chee, Julian Lovato and Tony Duran all lived at San
Juan Pueblo when he was a boy.
He would take every opportunity to watch them work.
"By observing them and their individual styles and approaches
to this medium, I picked up techniques I later experimented with
and adapted for my own use." Michael is well known for his petroglyph pins depicting shamanistic
figures found on rock art in northern New Mexico.
He is also known for his non-wearable pieces.
Michael
plans to work on a pair of sterling silver spurs decorated with
his own stamps and with turquoise.
"These spurs are in the style of 
the
work done by Navajo and Pueblo smiths in the 1930's and I feel that
making these would allow me to leave something unusual for younger
jewelers to study."
Michael
has works in the following:
American Craft Museum in New York, the Gene Autry Museum
in Los Angeles, the Heard Museum in Phoenix, the Millicent Rogers
Museum in Taos, the Wheelwright Museum in Santa Fe, the School of
American Research collection in Santa Fe, the Museum of Indian Arts
and Culture in Santa Fe, the Museum of Man in San Diego and the
Museum of Mankind-British Museum in London.
Images:
Images courtesy of the Blue Rain Gallery, copyright 1998-2002
