ceremonial pursuits. Individual pursuits Her family wanted her to return home, so Lois Smoky Kaulaity cut her painting career short. Upon returning home, Kaulaity married and devoted herself to her husband and children. Her married name was Lois Kaulaity, and she lived in Verden, Oklahoma for most of her life. She did develop a reputation for her fine beadwork, creating several innovations still used by Kiowa beadwork artists today. Ironically, because hers is the rarest work among the Kiowa Six, Kaulaity's work is most collectible. Kaulaity's figurative painting was a breakthrough for Southern Plains Indian women, because historically Plains women painted geometrical designs, such as those found on parfleches rather than narrative, representational work. Flora Belle Schrock (Kiowa, 1919–2018), Kaulaity's niece, said in 1995, "Aunt Louise was a hard worker... for her family. [She] started doing some beadwork, too. She really enjoyed it. And I think she had ambition [that] could have furthered... [her] art ability... But after she got married, she said, 'It's just impossible now with the children.'" Public collections Smoky's work can be found in the following public art collections: National Museum of the American Indian George Gustav Heye Center Gilcrease Museum Jacobson House Native Art Center McNay Art Museum Millicent Rogers Museum Philbrook Museum of Art Death Kaulaity died February 1, 1981. Notes References Lester, Patrick D. The Biographical Directory of Native American Painters. Norman and London: The Oklahoma University Press, 1995. . Wyckoff, Lydia L., ed. Visions and voices : Native American painting from the Philbrook Museum of Art. Tulsa, OK: Philbrook Museum of Art, 1996. . External links Jacobson House Native Art Center: About the Kiowa Six , Oklahoma Historical Society Kiowa people Native American painters Painters from Oklahoma People from Caddo County, Oklahoma 1907 births 1981 deaths American women painters People from Norman, Oklahoma People from Grady County, Oklahoma 20th-century American women artists Native American women artists 20th-century American painters Native American bead artists 20th-century Native American women 20th-century Native Americans