Art and 'Indigenous Adornment'

Original art by Venaya Yazzie, Dine'/Hopi
Photo courtesy of Venaya Yazzie
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED 2015

In creating this blog I wanted to showcase the 'beauty' of contemporary and historical Indigenous Adornment of the tribal people of the southwest, specifically the Dine' (Navajo) and Pueblo people.

I grew up with a strong sense of 'adornment' in my life. My maternal great-grandmother and grandmother both believed in 'adorning' themselves and their family with turquoise. When someone in our family was not wearing turquoise my grandmother would question them, and then suggest that they were some. My great-grandmother Louise Werito had a great moral story on the 'adornment' of turquoise jewelry and would use it to teach us a lesson on going without some type of turquoise jewelry item. In the end of the story she said if we don't wear jewelry or 'adorn' our wrists specifically then we were kind of foolish like the jackrabbit out in the sagebrush, sitting silly with his "bare arms."

This type of Dine' oral history has become part of my life. I use such teachings to continue tradition and to educate people on the significance of 'dootlizhi' or turquoise in 21st century life. So as a visual artist I do my best to paint 'Indigenous Adornment' via my paintings, as a way or contribution of the legacy of the 'adorned' desert matriarch.

Yazzgrl Art: Venaya Yazzie

Mixed media art by VenayaYazzie, Dine'/ Hopi artist.
Photo courtesy of Venaya Yazzie
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED 2015

When I was a young girl my days were spent 'creating.' I was an adopted child of my maternal grandparents and they spoiled me, so I was able to have any art supplies I asked for. I think my grandmother just knew I was on that path of an artist, so she never questioned why I wanted art supplies and not dolls or toys. My rich and unique childhood shaped who I would become as an adult, but also who and what I wanted to say as an Indigenous women artist.

Today I am so very grateful for my art abilities, for my art tells volumes of my story, but also as a contemporary Indigenous artist. Behind the 2-D imagery and jewelry I create is an even bigger story of my People's Indigenous history which always concerns: trauma, healing, survival, struggle, cultural history, oral history, language...

I am an artist today to help in a humble way to 'bless the People' and inspire the Indigenous youth.

Autumn.

Well, its a marvelous night for a moondance with the stars up above in your eyes a fabulous night to make romance 'neath the cover of October skies and all the leaves on the trees are falling to the sound of the breezes that blow and i'm trying to please to the calling of your heartstrings that play soft and low...

-Van Morrison