About the Artist

Polly Schaafsma is an American archaeologist, artist, author and leading authority on pre-Hispanic Indian rock art and kiva murals of the greater American Southwest. A research associate at the Laboratory of Anthropology/Museum of Indian Arts and Culture in Santa Fe, Schaafsma has authored ten books, as well as numerous monographs, journal articles, and book chapters. Her books include Indian Rock Art of the Southwest and Rock Art in New Mexico (both by University of New Mexico Press).

Schaafsma has been a frequent lecturer and past field instructor at rock art seminars for the School for Advanced Research, the Museum of New Mexico, Crow Canyon Archaeological Center, and elsewhere. In 2008, Schaafsma received the Klaus Wellmann Memorial Award from the American Rock Art Research Association.

As an artist, her drawings and paintings find their inspiration and influence by the rock art she studies and its deep integration with the landscape.

In 1954-1955, she studied under Ed Corbett at Mount Holyoke College, and was a member of the Taos Artists Association from 1968- 1979, with several one woman shows at the Stables Gallery and Ledoux Gallery (both in Taos) during that period.

She has exhibited at the Munson Gallery in Santa Fe and has been a member of invited group shows at Utah State University, Carlsbad Fine Arts Museum, and the Harwood Museum, Taos (duo show with John DePuy, 1987).


Download Full Biography