Johnny Yazzie, one of the major
contributors to the popularity and growth of
contemporary Indian painting, was born on
December 29, 1945 on the Navajo Reservation east
of Tuba City, Arizona. Johnny received his
education at Tuba City Boarding School and later
transferred to Sherman Institute in Riverside,
California.
As time progressed, Johnny moved
to Santa Fe, New Mexico where he attended the
Institute of American Indian Arts and the
College of Santa Fe. There he finished with his
Associates Degree in Fine Art.
Johnny attributes his interests and natural
talents to his up bringing in a very traditional
Navajo environment. His father was a medicine
man and his mother a traditional weaver. Her
realized that this was a source of income that
required time, interest, and dedication to
perfect a profession that is profitable and
unique.
Despite any formal education or
training, Johnny is now one of the most
successful artists in the United States.
International art collectors bought his
paintings, sculptures, and jewelry. He says "I
have acquired many friends internationally who
have a real appreciation for my work and my
culture." Johnny is well known for his Southwest
and Plains scenery paintings.
He says, "many people ask me hwy I paint
plans and pueblo scenes," he states, "The Plains
Indians are a part of my extended family and the
Pueblos have been my neighbors for as long as I
can remember. It is natural for me." His love
for nature, spirituality and people are usually
illustrated through his paintings. He enjoys and
loves to share these feelings with other people
who have a real appreciation for humanity and
nature.
Johnny also sees his artwork as a way to
contribute to history and literature for
generations to come. This is essential to those
who will not have had the opportunity to live in
a society where many of the transitions in the
Indian way of life have been so prevalent.
Johnny has been a member of the Oklahoma Art
League. He has also exhibited his art at the
Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe,
New Mexico, The Heard Museum in Phoenix,
Arizona, and art galleries/shows in Denver,
Colorado, Santa Monica, California, Sedona,
Arizona, and Albuquerque, New Mexico. He also
won awards at the New Mexico State fair and many
other places.
Johnny's paintings are in Europe, Germany,
Japan, and many other nations.
Fred Cleveland - Navajo
Fred
Cleveland is member of the Bitter Water and
Kayonnie clans. He says he was born at "one of
the first Indian hospitals - a Hogan."
Until going away to boarding school at
the age of ten, Fred lived in a Hogan in
the rugged high Desert Mountains near
Ganado, Arizona where his family raised
sheep.
He was first exposed to art when
he watched his mother weave rugs and his father,
who created images in the curative process of
sand painting. He left the reservation for a
time when his mother taught weaving in Arizona
State College in Flagstaff. She could not afford
a babysitter and as he sat close by her in the
classroom, students would pass him pencils and
paper to work with and keep him busy. This was
his introduction to a means of expression that
he has used ever since. At Toyei Boarding School
in Arizona, he painted a mural, and during his
army experience in Germany did murals as part of
his KP duty.
Fred Cleveland remained a
basically self-taught artist until he and three
other Native American artist, Ted Draper, Jimmy
Abeita, and Sammy Sandoval, went away to study
for a year and a half at the American Academy of
Art in Chicago.
Fred says that if he had to name a style for
his work, he would call it "Native American
Western." In other respects, however, he
hesitates to characterize himself, recognizing
that his work contains elements of new
traditionalism, realism, and old traditionalism.
He likes earth tones, and the portrayal of
scenes of Native American life. Above all, he
seeks to express something about his own life,
about his past, and emotions he has felt.
This is a point where Fred acknowledges an
important difference between his life and that
of his ancestors, a realization he had while
doing a show with his father. Fred showed his
work, and his father did sand paintings, which
were destroyed afterwards. In the Navajo way,
those types of expression, of your life and what
you have seen, of the past and its encouragement
for the human race, are left behind as a legacy
for the children of the world.
Fred Cleveland has won numerous awards for
his work. Nearly every year since 1978 he has
placed either 1st or 2nd at the New Mexico State
Fair. Fred has also won numerous 1st and 2nd
place awards since 1969 from Heard Museum and
the Philbrook Museum of Indian Art competitions.
In 1972 Fred won the Grand Award in Art at the
Navajo Tribal Fair. An award that he prizes more
than most.
Guy Nez Jr.
A Navajo
Indian, born in a "Hogan" on the Navajo
Reservation on December 26, 1946 at White
Cove, Arizona. At ten, he attended Holbrook Bordertown Indian School and graduated in
1966.
Traditions and ancient Navajo
Legends were learned from his great-grandfather
along with the "Anasazi" pictographs and
petroglyphs. The Navajo reservation influences
the excitement of my surroundings.
Education:
Indian
School, Holbrook, Arizona, Institute
of American Indian Art. Santa Fe,
New Mexico, Commercial Arts College,
Los Angeles, California.
Awards:
First Place -
1968
Institute of American Indian Art,
Philbrook, Oklahoma
First Place -
1970
Gallup Intertribal Ceremonial,
Gallup, New Mexico
Second Place
and Honorable Mention
All Indian Invitational Show
Scottsdale, Arizona
Second Place
- 1973
State Fair, Albuquerque, New Mexico
Shows:
1968 -
Institute of American Indian Art
Philbrook, Oklahoma
1970 -
Intertribal Ceremonial, Gallup, New
Mexico
All Indian
Invitational Show, Scottsdale,
Arizona
1971 - Under
contract to paint for Ortega
Gallup, New Mexico
1973 - State
Fair, Albuquerque, New Mexico
1976 - All
Indian Invitational Art Show,
Scottsdale, Arizona
1980 - Red
Cloud Invitational Art Show, Pine
Ridge, South Dakota
1981 - Santa
Fe Indian Market, Santa Fe, New
Mexico
"Another versatile Navajo artist, Guy B.
Nez, Jr., has done sculpture, pottery, and
jewelry in addition to painting. Born in
White Cone, Arizona, in 1948, Nez attended
Holbrook, Arizona, public schools before
going to Santa Fe Junior College on an art
scholarship.
He also studied fine and commercial art at Los
Angeles Trade Technical College. in addition to
water-based media, he has done some work in oil
and in a variety of graphics. He won an
honorable mention at Philbrook in 1970 for his
casein, Hunting Warriors. In that same year he
also entered the Heard Museum Guild Show,
winning two honorable mentions in water-based
paintings, and a first award in prints and
drawing for his Ye-Be-Chi. He exhibited in 1971
at Scottsdale, the Red Cloud show at Pine Ridge,
and Gallup, taking an honorable mention at Pine
Ridge in the oil and acrylic class, and winning
a second-place award in three-dimensional
paintings at Gallup. His versatility as a
painter is displayed in a still life of a
medicine man's paraphernalia."
Woody Big Bow
Woody Big Bow was born Woodrow
Wilson Big Bow on January 29, 1914 in Carnegie,
Oklahoma. He lived most of his life in Yukon,
Oklahoma, and graduated from the University of
Oklahoma in 1939.Throughout his life, he worked
as a set painter for western movies, and later
did work as a contractor, builder, and painter.
Some of the commissioned work he
did included murals in the RCA Building in New
York City, New York, and the Southwest Museum in
Los Angeles, California.
Some of Woody Big
Bow's well known work includes the design he
made for the Oklahoma 45th Infantry Division. It
was a red and yellow thunderbird insignia.
Big Bow had many unique attributes that showed
up in his work. He was known for not wanting to
paint feet; instead, he would paint grass or
bushes where the feet of his subjects would be.
Woody Big Bow thoroughly enjoyed the artwork of
other Southern Plain artists. He would often
imitate their style, incorporating it into his
own work.
He died in July of 1988.
Robert Redbird
Robert Redbird was born in 1939
in Oklahoma. He is a member of the Kiowa Tribe
of Oklahoma, and often depicts tribal ceremonies
in his artwork.
Redbird grew up in Mountain View and Gotebo,
Oklahoma. He currently lives in Anadarko, and is
a member of the the Kiowa Gourd Clan, in
addition to his membership in the Kiowa Tribe of
Oklahoma.
The artistic style Redbird uses
helps depict the beauty of the Native American
way of life. He studied many Native American
cultures other than his own, and has a great
knowledge of Native American traditions. He
portrays the beauty of nature and Native
American culture throughout his art.
Some of Robert Redbird's awards include being
selected as the featured artist for the Red
Earth Festival in Oklahoma City. He was inducted
into the National Motion Picture Hall of Fame,
and in 1998 he was inducted into the Kiowa Hall
of Fame.
Robert Redbird contributes much to the community
in addition to his exquisite artwork. He has
traveled extensively, and gives humanitarian aid
to those he comes across. He has established
missions of aid to the poor in many areas. He
has also donated his art to help those in need.
He sent some of his art to then New York Mayor
Rudy Giuliani to raise money for victims of the
September 11, 2001 terror attacks in New York
City.
Dirk A. Schneider
Dirk A. Schneider was born on
July 16, 1935 in Winona, Minnesota. He lived
there for several years during his childhood
until his parents moved the family to
Albuquerque, New Mexico during a childhood
summer.
Schneider began his career in
Banking and Finance, but decided this was not
his niche. He wanted to be able to express
himself and his life experiences through art.
Schneider taught himself to paint, which he
said, "...allowed me to fully express myself in
each painting I do." Some of his favorite
subjects to paint include the American circus,
clowns, science fiction, and most importantly,
Southwestern Landscapes. He loves to paint
images of his beloved New Mexico, which reflect
images and experiences from his life.
Paul Vigil
Paul Vigil is a member of the
Tesuque Pueblo tribe, located near Santa Fe, New
Mexico. His artistic talents are expressed
beautifully through his watercolors. He is known
for painting Kachina Dancers in great detail.
His artwork has been featured in Southwestern
Indian Ceremonials by Tom Bahti, a magazine
dedicated to Native American ceremonial
traditions.
