Leaving the Sandra Day O'Connor Gallery, I encountered a few additional pieces of sneaker artwork. The first is by Virgil Ortiz of the Cochiti Pueblo and is entitled "Rezzurect: Wildflower Tendrils", again using Converse Chuck Taylor High Top All Star sneakers. Below the sneakers is a cute little dog figure entitled "Pointer" made of Cochiti clay, white and red clay slip, and wild spinach pigment (black).

The next sneaker artwork is by Autumn Borts-Medlock of the Santa Clara Pueblo. The sneaker piece is untitled but also made using Converse Chuck Taylor High Top All Star sneakers. The beautiful figurine at the bottom is also untitled and made from Carved blackware.

The next display was a bit different — a canvas print stretched on a wood frame entitled "Ram - Pangwu". The artist is Duane Koyawena of the Hopi-Tewa tribe. Below that image are the Converse Chuck Taylor High Top All Star sneakers decorated with paint. They were untitled.

Here we see the work of Tammy Garcia of the Santa Clara Pueblo. The Converse Chuck Taylor High Top All Star sneakers were decorated using fabric markers and entitled "Spring Time Converse". The pottery piece below was made from carved blackwear but is untitled.

The last set of decorated sneakers was decorated by Les Namingha a member of Hopi-Tewa, Zuni Pueblo using simply paint. It is untitled. The ceramic piece is also untitled and was also painted.

You are probably asking yourself, "Who is this?" The answer is Eddie Basha. If you don't live in Arizona, you are probably still saying, "Who is that?" His family established a chain of grocery stores, some under the name "Bashas" (one is about a mile and a half south of my townhouse and is a place I visit frequently). From Wikipedia, "The Bashas' family of stores includes four distinct formats: Bashas', Bashas' Diné, AJ's Fine Foods, and Food City. The company has more than 130 stores serving every county in Arizona and Crownpoint, New Mexico." I personally endorse AJ's Find Foods because of their excellent pastry counter. Try one of their Napoleans or Fruit Custard — Excellent!

His passion for collecting American Indian art in a range of media was grounded in his appreciation of the artists, their cultures, and communities that defined Arizona, his beloved state. In 1992, he established the Zelma Basha Salmeri (Eddie's aunt) Gallery of Western American and American Indian Art to share his collection with the community and to see the art remain in and be shown near the communities in which it was created. Although Eddie passed away in 2013, his legacy lives on here at the Heard Museum.

Eddie Basha Jr. focused his colecting on close-coiled baskets woven in the early decades of the 20th century, primarily between 1900 and 1930. He chose to collect baskets from a time characterized by technical and artistic innovation by weavers who were masters of their art form. Basha collected baskets created in the communities of three American Indian cultural groups in Arizona: the Akimel Oodham, the Yavapai and the Western Apache.

At the time these baskets were woven, the people of these cultural groups had been living through decades of great change and hardship. The growth of Anglo settler towns in Arizona, combined with confinement to reservations and greatly reduced resources, meant that selling baskets could become a valuable source of income for families. Add to this an increasing number of Arizona traders and trading posts, and the Arts and Crafts movement, which celebrated handmade furnishings and décor inspired by nature, and it all coalesced to create new markets for baskets that had not previously existed.

The baskets in the Basha Family Collection silently express stories of the weavers' worlds — origin stories and stories of the land and animals that were part of those worlds — handed down through generations. Weavers used their deep knowledge of the land and the plants they tended to gather and process natural materials to form their baskets and to create their designs. Weavers' stories and their innovative ideas and accomplishments expressed through their baskets were understood and appreciated by their families and within their communities. In the early decades when these newly completed baskets were sold, the people who purchased them and wrote books about them did not record the artists' names or learn their stories. So today we hopefuly refer ot these weavers as "Artist Once Known" and partner with knowledgeable people from the tribal communities to reunite the artists with their art.

Akimel O'odham, early 1900s (left)
Here the weaver enhanced a flowing water design with a red aniline dye that has almost completely faded. Aniline dyes on Akimel O'odham baskets are rare. A natural orange dye made from the utoi root was used more successfully, lasting longer.

Akimel O'odham, early 1900s (middle)
This weaver added coyote tracks to a typical swirling water design.

Akimel O'odham, early 1900s (right)
Instead of creating the flowing water design on this basket in black martynia fiber, the weaver chose to make martynia the background fiber, with the design worked in willow.

Diné, early 1900s

The design on this basket is called a Spider Woman Cross. The design's name references Spider Woman, the Diné holy person who taught the Diné to weave.

Yavapai and Western Apache Baskets: Similarities and Differences (next three photos)
(Top row) — Weavers of Yavapai and Western Apache close-coiled baskets use the same materials and construction techniques. Willow or cottonwood are used for the three foundation rods of the basket coils and for the sewing elements that cover the coils. The black material is the exterior fiber of a martynia (devil's claw) pod.

(Middle row) — Yavapai weavers use proportionately more martynia in their baskets than Western Apache weavers do, and they often use martynia as the background of a negative design, with the design motif in willow or cottonwood. The center of many Yavapai tray baskets is a star, either solid black or outlined in black.

(Bottom row) — While both Yavapai and Western Apache weavers incorporate a variety of human and animal figures in their basketry designs, those figures are more frequent and varied in Western Apache baskets. Animals depicted include horses, dogs, and deer. Designs with a radial format are also more frequently used by Western Apache weavers.