Diné, Hopi share best-in-show honors

For the third year in a row a Navajo has won best-in-show honors at the Santa Fe Indian Market held last weekend, sharing the award with a Hopi artist.

On Friday, Bruce Bernstein, executive director of the Southwestern Association for Indian Arts, announced that Blackhorse Lowe, Diné, had won best in show for his film "Shimasani," a story about his grandmother's desire to attend school.

The film also won in the category "Moving Images" (formerly called film), a category that was added this year.

"I shot it in black and white because it had an older feel, tied into tradition better," he said.

It was filmed in the starkly beautiful Burnham, N.M., area in Navajo with English subtitles. Navajo speakers get a bonus with the puns and double entendres between the two languages.

There is a wonderful scene where a Navajo girl brings her white boyfriend home to meet the family. He is trying to learn Navajo and catches a word now and then. She incorporates them in her translations.

The second best-in-show winner at the Market was Stetson Honyumptewa, Moencopi Hopi, who won for his large katsina with an allegorical subtext of a prayer for rain.

Honyumptewa's speech was highly emotional as he told the audience he had suffered "about a three year artist's block."

"No matter what I did it didn't come out right," he said. "I put a lot of my heart and soul into this carving."

"Something like 60 judges were unable to break the tie between the two artists," Bernstein said.

"So we talked it over, parted with tradition and awarded them both," he said as the audience burst into applause.

To be eligible for the top prize the artist must have already won first place, best in category and best in class.

Daniel Sunshine Reeves, Diné, took best in class in jewelry with an elaborate miniature kerosene lamp.

Jewelry is a highly competitive category and really fine pieces got lesser awards or no ribbon at all. In a field of outstanding entries, Alfred Joe took first in concho belts.

Shonto Begay took best in division for painting and a first-place ribbon for acrylics. David John also took home several ribbons.

Innovation is key

Even in the pottery classification, "innovation" was the key word. Best of class was awarded to Acoma potter Robert Patricio for a polychrome piece with traditional design but executed in shades of orange rather than the traditional Acoma black on white.

"I kept experimenting with color," he said. "Finally I decided to put colors together. I guess it was a good idea."

Not coincidentally, the Indian Market issue of the Santa Fean Magazine presented a lively discussion of traditional versus contemporary, pointing out that, like history in general, they function in time as parent and child.

"Traditional" Navajo dress was adopted in the mid-1860s. Traditional silversmithing and weaving both had to wait on the arrival of the Europeans.

If it weren't for the creative vision of Navajos like Samuel Manymules, who took a first place and best of division for his olla this year, there wouldn't be any Navajo pottery for sale.

Tourists aren't going to get excited over thick brown jugs plastered with pinon pitch. Manymules' simple reddish brown ware with black smudges is unique to him and he produces his pieces in endless shapes and variations. He has been a major prizewinner for years at Indian art shows.

A Navajo father and son, DuWayne Chee Sr. and DuWayne Chee Jr., displayed some wonderful cedar carvings. DuWayne Sr. has been a wood carver for many years.

DuWayne Jr. said, "I put in four years at the art institute in Santa Fe, learning a variety of skills, including silversmithing and lapidary. We create the pieces together and I add details of inlaid silver and stone to give them a unique look."

Dallin Maybee, Northern Arapaho/Seneca, has won many awards in recent years with his beadwork and ledger art, which won him best in show in 2007.

He added a new twist this year, creating "Buffalo Sticks." Horse Sticks, which he also makes, were used in Plains dances and are very collectable.

"I came up with the idea of doing the same thing with buffalos," Maybee said. "Why not? They are whimsical and cuddly as teddy bears."

Photography as art

Photography has been gaining strength as an "Indian" art form and newcomer Myron James Begay Fowler, from the Page, Ariz., area, has a big smile on his face.  He has only been photographing for a little over a year with his large format camera and his work is spectacular.

Fowler won best of division with a large print of Monument Valley. He also won another best of division with a photo taken with film.

"I use different printing methods for the different types of photos, but only the best," he said. "I guarantee my prints will be around for a thousand years."

Trent Lee, a Navajo silversmith who favors fabricated jewelry and makes his own beads, lived in Gallup until recently.  We met at the Wheelwright Museum where he was awarded a Wolfus Fellowship, which is given to encourage new talent.

"I've won best in class the last two years here at Market, " he told me.

The next day he went that one better by winning best in classification for the youth division. Winners can't be older than seventeen.

Several young and promising Navajo artists besides Trent were awarded fellowships this year by the Wheelwright Museum. In fact, Navajos swept the Goodman Fellowships: Julius Bedoni, a painter; Leander Begay, a jeweler; Rydel Curtis, a jeweler; and Alex Sanches, a jeweler who is half Zuni.

Native women fellowship

There was another new award from the Wheelwright, the Lehmberg Fellowship for Native American Women Artists. Cheyenne Hope Custer, Diné, 20, was born and raised near Gallup and graduated from Gallup High School.

She spent her childhood traveling to shows to sell with her family. Her specialty is tufa casting which she learned from her father, Ira Custer, who learned the art from his father, Frank Apache.

As a child Cheyenne begged her father to teach her. When she was only eight she made a bracelet, her first piece, which sold for $150 after it won a blue ribbon at a show in Dallas, Texas. Her career was launched.

Cheyenne's co-winner was Stephanie Medina from Santo Domingo (recently changed to Kewa) Pueblo. A family tradition, Stephanie started learning jewelry at an early age.

By 14 she was making heishi. At 18 she was playing with scraps of turquoise and colored stone and decided to try mosaic inlay, which she now excels at.

Of course, Navajos dominated the textile categories. Best of division went to Tahnibaa Naataanii for her trio of miniatures. She also won a blue ribbon in traditional woven clothing.

One of the new stars in weaving is D.Y. Begay who works with modern designs. She has taken top honors at the Heard and elsewhere.

Artists who couldn't make it into one of the shows, or wanted multiple exposure, worked out of hotel rooms, sidewalks, vacant lots and the trunks of their cars.

There doesn't seem to be any limit to Indian Market, the Native equivalent of the World Series, the Emmy awards, Grammy awards, the Oscars, and People's Choice Awards rolled into one.

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