Ancient Traditions, New Horizons

Today's Native American artists are builders of bridges. In their memories lie the traditions of their ancestors; in their visions rise the horizons of the future. Many start with time-honored art forms, and on these they impose their own interpretations. Others have become so innovative that their work may seem to have nothing “Indian” about it at all. Yet no matter how contemporary their designs or revolutionary their colors, the influence of cultural heritage is never far below the surface.

Kachina dolls, traditionally static figures carved of cottonwood root, have evolved into intricate wood sculptures in lifelike detail, depicting both action and grace. Taken one step further, the wood carving becomes a gleaming statuette cast in bronze.

Pottery, among the older crafts, still reflects its ancient roots in the hands of contemporary artists. Most potters have been taught by mothers, aunts, or grandmothers. Generation followed generation, with each individual adding a personal touch to vessels made the old way-hand-formed without a potter's wheel, and fired with sheep dung or other traditional fuel. Now modern artists explore new shapes, colors, and styles of decoration, yet look to the ancient past for inspiration. Richard Zane Smith has revived a technique of the Anasazi and Mogollon cultures: corrugated ware in the form of beautiful large, thin-walled vessels. Al Qöyawayma has studied the clays and designs of ancient Hopi pottery to produce magnificent pottery art with simple stylistic designs. Legends of the past have stimulated ventures in elegant gold and silver work set with diamonds, opals, black jade, and other exotic gems, as well as the traditional semiprecious stones. The result is stunning contemporary jewelry with subtle overtones of ancient cultures.

Employing centuries-old methods, today's weavers create imaginative designs while introducing startling new colors. Some work with an amazing range of natural dyes, resulting in subtleties of color not previously seen in Native American weaving. Vegetal dyes are derived from flowers and other plant parts, lichens, cactus, potato skins, beets, red onion skins, and coffee grounds. An unusual young Hopi woman (traditionally, Hopi weavers are men) experiments with bold, vivid dyes extracted from insects (cochineal and lac) as well as plants (madder root, indigo, chamisa, yellow daisy).

In short, American Indian artists expressing themselves in their own innovative, contemporary styles continue to value their heritage and draw heavily upon its strengths. Oreland Joe, a Navajo sculptor, recounts a dream: “It took place in a lodgehouse near the mountains. Outside, there were people all the way 'round the lodge, dressed in the old way with buckskin, beads, feathers, ornaments, other fine things. As they started to sing, they painted three colors running north to south. The colors were black, yellow, and white. As they sang and the drums became louder, I felt as though my spirit was escorted toward the doorway to the south. As I went through the doorway, I remember listening to and noticing the blending of the old songs into the new music of today. They sounded very beautiful together. The old songs faded away and the new ones prevailed....” The asap Navajo Yei-bi-chai, bronze, twelve inches high, by Lowell Talashoma, Sr., thirty-five, Hopi. Talashoma was one of the first artists to explore bronze casting of carved wood kachina dolls. The kachina in Hopi religion serves as an intermediary between humans and the powers of nature.

Kachina carving

Kachina carving, a centuries-old tradition among the Hopi, has evolved dramatically under the skilled hands and discerning eyes of such artists as Dennis Tewa (BELOW). A kachina carving (BELOW, LEFT) begins to take form.

(RIGHT) A kachina nears completion, cut entirely from a single piece of cottonwood root. Tewa, a full-time artist, has been carving for only five years.

Sterling silver pendant (LEFT) was created by two Hopi artists: Phillip Sekaquaptewa, whose silver overlay depicts the Longhair Kachina Maiden, and Neil David, Sr., who carved the lower half, Longhair Kachina, in cocobolo wood. Pendant is inset with turquoise, coral, and mother of pearl.

(BELOW AND OPPOSITE PAGE) Carving kachina dolls from the root of the cottonwood tree is a traditional Hopi art form. Now several Hopi innovators, such as Ronald Honyouti, have taken this art a step farther, turning carvings into bronze masterpieces. First stage in the production of a bronze kachina is creating a rubber mold of the original wood carving, then pouring hot wax into it to form a replica. The wax casting then is used to fashion a ceramic mold into which molten bronze is poured to make the final piece.(BELOW) Original carved wood pieces of a kachina lie beside a wax casting in its rubber mold. In the next stages (OPPOSITE PAGE, INSET PHOTOGRAPHS), Honyouti puts the finishing touches on a wax casting. This, in turn, is used to create the ceramic mold for the molten bronze (CENTER INSET). In the last stage of the process, a casting is formed (BOTTOM INSET) and removed from the mold. At its left stands a casting only partially removed.

Completed bronze casting (LEFT) of Deer Kachina, by Ronald Honyouti. (ABOVE) Original wood carving. The colors (patinas) of the bronze are accomplished by chemically staining the metal.

The Arikara-Picuris artist C. J. Wells was born in Santa Fe in 1952. A painter for twenty years, she studied the Old Masters and, more recently, Japanese classical artists, whose glaze techniques she now uses to add depth to her work.

(BELOW) Big Eagle, oil on canvas, thirty-eight by forty inches, by C. J. Wells.

(OPPOSITE PAGE, CLOCKWISE, FROM TOP) The Young Celome, green Alaskan soapstone, nineteen inches high, and The Long Wait, red alabaster, twenty-one and one-half inches high, both by Navajo sculptor Tomas Dougi, Jr. Fourteen-karat gold miniature pipe tomahawk set with sugilite and Australian opal, by Ray Tracey, Navajo. Gold necklaces with settings of white, pink, and red coral, and turquoise, by Al Nez, Navajo.

Marie Shirley, Navajo, (LEFT) a versatile and innovative weaver, was one of the first to break traditional bonds.

(RIGHT) Hand-dyed wool yarns by Ramona Sakiestewa.

(BELOW) Banded Hopi style rug by Ramona Sakiestewa. Ramona's work is unusual among the Hopi as men traditionally are the weavers. She re-creates old styles, using insect (cochineal and lac) and vegetal dyes.

Burntwater design, six by nine feet, by Sadie Curtis and Alice Belone. This fine art weaving contains twenty-five subtly blended vegetal colors furnished by six other weavers. ◆

Isleta Pueblo jeweler Ted Charveze creates works of art to wear. He not only designs jewelry, such as the necklace nearing completion (OPPOSITE PAGE), but is a master goldsmith who does all his own casting, inlay, gemstone, finishing, and lapidary work-as demonstrated in the completed fourteenkarat gold choker (INSET) with diamonds and black jade. (LEFT) This set, also by Charveze, contains Australian opals and six carats of diamonds and represents partial fulfillment of an exclusive commission from the prestigious firm of Percy Marks of Australia.

(BELOW) R. C. Gorman's Trading Woman lithograph displays examples of ancient Southwest Indian jewelry. Gorman has focused the whole body of his workdrawings, paintings, and sculpture-toward depiction of Navajo women going placidly about their chores. The polychrome jar (RIGHT) is the work of Hopi potter Rondina Huma.

Ceramic sculpture titled Moccasins, fourteen and one-half inches high, is by Karita Coffey, Comanche. Reed Clan (BOTTOM, RIGHT) is a life-size group sculpture in Indiana limestone by Doug Hyde, Nez Percé-ChippewaAssiniboine. Hyde studied under Allan Houser and attended the Art Institute of Los Angeles. The pottery vessel (BOTTOM, LEFT) was created by Dextra Quotskuyva, Hopi. Striped Blanket, a Utah alabaster sculpture twenty-one inches high, is by Cliff Fragua, Jémez Pueblo.

Harvey Begay, Navajo, began silversmithing as a youth, encouraged by his father, Kenneth Begay. Later, under the guidance of the late Pierre Touraine, he studied the jeweler's art intensively. A keen observer, Begay today draws his ideas from a variety of sources, including traditional Navajo designs.

(LEFT AND BELOW) Hand-wrought silver goblets, by Harvey Begay. (BOTTOM) His necklace with traditional Indian designs is fourteen-karat gold, silver, and turquoise, set with a single diamond. Bracelet is silver with coral, turquoise, and ironwood.◆

Requiring exceptional control of the clay, the ancient Anasazi technique of corrugating pottery vessels (OPPOSITE PAGE) has been revived by Richard Zane Smith, Wyandot. After the initial coiling process, the moist clay is scraped to a nearly smooth finish. The potter's skilled fingers then pinch the walls, and with his thumbnail he creates the corrugated texture. The extremely large, thin-walled pots are later embellished with paint. Navajo artist Elizabeth Abeyta's native clay sculpture (BELOW, LEFT) won first prize at the Museum of Northern Arizona Navajo Show in 1985. Abeyta, whose father, Narciso Abeyta, is a noted artist, adapts a contemporary approach to traditional ideas. (RIGHT) Navajo jeweler James Little gets much of his inspiration for his jewelry motifs by watching his mother, Dorothy, weave rugs at his family's home. His elegant gold cast bracelet with 117 diamonds (BELOW) and the gold earrings and pendant necklace set with charoite (BOTTOM) carry distinctive, traditional Navajo rug designs. Lone Mountain turquoise, coral, and lapis lazuli inlay on gold form this necklace (LEFT) by Lee Yazzie, Navajo. (BELOW) Nancy Youngblood Cutler, a venturesome Santa Clara Pueblo potter, descends from a long line of distinguished artists in clay. Here she has incorporated her own designs onto traditionally shaped vessels four and one-half to six inches in diameter. (OPPOSITE PAGE, TOP) Three Navajo rugs in the distinctive Burntwater style are all made from handspun, vegetal-dyed wool. From left to right, the rugs were woven by Cora Baldwin, Helen Keoni, and Virginia Yazzie. The sizes vary from twenty-four and one-half by thirty-three inches to thirty-six by sixty inches; all three show exceptional color and design qualities. (OPPOSITE, BOTTOM) Noted for her raised outline rugs, Navajo Marie Watson has in the last five years begun to incorporate new colors into her weaving, which employs handspun, vegetaldyed yarns. Both sides of a Teec Nos Pos style rug with raised outline are shown here.