My grandmother(s) are my muse(s)

Original Art by Venaya Yazzie
Mixed media 10" x 10"
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED 2015

As a visual artist I have always been inspired by the historical photographs of my family. I have thus incorporated such images into my own paintings such as as the one pictured here. This photograph of my painting is from a series I did concerning 'origin' and the relation of the desert woman as matriarch of the land. The image so the women here is a my great-grandmother Louise Begay Werito.

Werito Navajo woman 'adorned'

Werito family photograph of Annabelle.
Photo courtesy of Jane Yazzie Family photos.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

This is a photograph of my maternal grandmother's older sister Annabelle who was born in 1928 in New Mexico.

This is a part of a larger collection of my family's Werito family photographs of their lives on the eastern Navajo nation in northwestern New Mexico. This image depicts her in her finest Navajo cultural adornments via her silver and turquoise jewelry items. As you can see she is wearing a velveteen shirt, which has a collar adorned with silver buttons.

In conversations with my grandmother I found that her father, my great-grandfather Jim regularly would commission a local Navajo silversmith to make such silver buttons for his wife and daughters.

New Mexico Navajo woman taking photograph, 1945

Navajo woman taking photograph, New Mexico 1945
Date Original: 1945, Creator: New Mexico Tourism Bureau, Collection: New Mexico Magazine Collection, Album 40
                                      Publisher: Palace of the Governors Photo Archive, Negative Number HP.2007.20.707

This photograph has become one my newest favorites of historical photographs available to the public to view.

When I look at this image I think of my own K'e', my family and especially my maternal grandmother who at a young age was gifted a Brownie-style camera in the late 1930s. I imagine that she look similar to this beautiful Navajo woman, 'adorned' in her wonderful Navajo -style clothing and cultural jewelry items.

Therefore, my family has similar photos of the Wertio-Yazzie, Manyhogans, Bitterwater clans, most of which were captured by my grandmother Jane. It is through her 'eye' that these photographs documented the history of Navajos in northwestern New Mexico on the eastern region of the Navajo reservation.

In this photograph though, we have a woman wearing the treasured Navajo women's veleveen collared-blouse adorned with small silver buttons. Such clothing was created and sewn by Navajo women using old iron Singer sewing machines.

Historical photograph of a Hopi girl 'adorned'

Historical photograph of a Hopi girl circa 1902, Arizona, USA
Photo source: Internet

This historic photograph is quality.

I am so in love with her Indigenous adornment' in this image for it shows the traditional Hopi female hairstyle of a young unmarried girl, her clothing and her jewelry.

The earring adornments she wears are traditionally of Hopi origin, they are called Mosaic (style) earrings and are made with shell varieties and a mix of turquoise pieces. She also wears a mix of bead strands and a beautiful silver bead and naja necklace.

What a beautiful photo of a desert ancestor!

BlueBird Handbags by Venaya VJ Yazzie Dine'/Hopi

BlueBird Handbag made by Venaya VJ Yazzie 2015

I have been designing and creating these BlueBird Handbags for several years now. I was inspired to make them from my family and especially by my maternal grandmother who always 'resourced' these flour bags for other uses. Growing up with my great grandmother, maternal grandmother and various aunties and cousin-sister I seen how they all had perpetuated the idea of recycling, reusing, re-utilizing items for other purposes.

So I began to use a mix of material that were 'recycled' from other materials in making my handbags. I use the BlueBird flour bag as the base of my bags then add other items such as remnant material, belt straps, recycled zippers and on and on with re-purposed items.

BlueBird Handbags by Venaya Yazzie.Dine'/Hopi

BlueBird Handbag made by Venaya Yazzie 2015