Hello Friends and Family, |
Heard Museum, Part 5 |
Link to the web version by clicking here. |
Link to this year's index by clicking here. |
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!
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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.
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Akimel O'odham, early 1900s (left) |
Diné, early 1900s |
Yavapai and Western Apache Baskets: Similarities and Differences (next three photos) |
(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. |
To be continued... |
Life is good. |
Aloha, B. David |
P. S., All photos and text © B. David Cathell Photography, Inc. — www.bdavidcathell.com |