Pop Chalee was born Merina Lujan in Castle Gate, UT, in 1906 to a Swiss mother and a Native American father. Despite frequent mispronunciations, she preferred the Taos Pueblo name. "It means Blue Flower," she explained to biographer Margaret Cesa. "My grandmother gave it to me."
In 1935 Pop Chalee entered the Santa Fe Indian School (forerunner of the Institute of American Indian Art). There Pop Chalee was offered the freedom she needed to paint the flying horses and other whimsies of which she dreamed. Her childhood visions and the powerful influence of Indian dancing became the imaginative visions of the mature artist.
In 1990 Pop Chalee received the New Mexico Governor's Award and she continued to attract attention right up to her death in December 1993.
Source: Pop Chalee, The World of Flower Blue by Sally Eauclaire; Southwest Art, November 1997