Arts

For a moment, the gray sky above Dinétah opened, and sunlight spilled through, casting the scene in soft gold. Director Travis Holt Hamilton stood behind the monitor, watching as the lead actor, “Secody,” a 70-year-old veteran learning to forgive his father, knelt in prayer. The wind lifted the trees, the light intensified and then it was gone.

For Lois Becenti, weaving has been both a livelihood and a way of life for six decades.

Navajo artist Elmer Yazzie chose not to paint the familiar mountains and waterways for his Northern Navajo Fair poster. Instead, he created a portrait of a multigenerational family gathered before Tsé Bit’ą’í, a scene that speaks to the bonds that hold a household together

A group of artists gathers monthly with easels and paints, capturing the changing light on canyon walls and mesas. Their mission extends beyond artmaking: they’re building a bridge between generations.

The power of art to heal was at the center of a workshop led by Khalid Honie last Tuesday afternoon at the Navajo Nation Library