'Shash Jaa' is a Sister - Summer 2021 in SE Utah

 

I arrived in Bluff, Utah on Sunday evening. The brilliance of the orange - ochre sunrays were shining in the mesa valley of the small rural community.  I had visited Bluff on many occasions, most recently in June and July of 2021.  I was also to work as a cultural consultant in the area which included visiting 'Shash Jaa', or as it is known, Bears Ears mountain.

June 2021 was my initial visit to the high desert mesa lands of southeast Utah, including many areas of the Navajo nation land within the immediate areas of Bears Ears.  As a Native person from the southwest land, this area is one that I had not visited much.  For sure I know my soul was soothed as I walked and talked in and with the environment.

In July I continued my work in the area of Cedar Mesa and Bluff.  This second time around was a beautiful experience for my spirit, for I was and am still grieving the passing of my grandmother.  Everything was right, and this visit seemed to be a blessing, one that my grandmother would enjoyed hearing about.  For this visit was totally a true muse-experience, for my five senses were alert.

I was in awe of the famous "Bears Ears Meadow" - and I continue to be inspired by the grandeur of the two Bears Ears peaks that stand in the background of the high plains meadow.  The blessings that were bestowed included a picnic at the meadow and continued cultural dialogue at the base of Bears Ears.

As far as the issue of Shash Jaa being designated as a national park, it's an 'iffy' situation.  America as a whole had no idea that such a place existed, but since the designation, the hordes of tourist have come and gone.  They as a greater public, do not have any or much concepts of 'visiting with respect' and therefore much has been stolen and many ancestral indigenous cultural sites have been vandalized as a result.  With only two park rangers servicing the entire park, there is much room for disrespectful activities.

As a native person, whose ancestors are rooted in this community of Cedar Mesa, I know and understand the protocols that need and should be instilled. For me this area is a sacred experience, and should be respected.

Blessings All Around,

Venaya Yazzie, 2021- ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

So, who is Yazzgrl Art?

 Yazzgrl Art owner Venaya J. Yazzie

The art of southwest Indigenous women is monumental in its existence in 2021.  Venaya was born to enact the role of "artist." In the mother tongue' of her tribal culture, she is "na'a'cha'ii' asdzaan."  The meaning refers to a number of creative notions in the Dine' (Navajo) language, but generally refers to a human being who makes 'beautiful, extraordinary, fine, complex' things about Art.

Venaya has participated in a plethora of art show exhibitions and art festivals throughout the southwest and west coast communities of America including Santa Fe Indian Market and the Autry Indian Arts Market in LA. During her time in different communities, Venaya feels very blessed to continually meet various new people, especially those who are interested in the Arts and who have appreciation for modern Indigenous art.

The Dine' people are a very gifted group of people for many of them are artists which include those are are weavers and silversmiths.  The area of painting and other 2-D art is were Yazzie favors, she primarily is a painter but also works in the area of Fine Art Photography.

Southwest Indigenous women poets

Southwest Indigenous women poets: Tacey A. Atsitty and Venaya Yazzie

Poetry by Navajo poets was shared by Tacey A. Atsitty and Venaya Yazzie who are two of the six artists included in the Resilient Matriarchy: Indigenous Women's Art in Community exhibition.  The women's virtual art show is sponsored by Open Doors Art in Action in Flagstaff, Arizona on Thursday, March 11, 2021 via a zoom meeting.

The Zoom meeting was hosted by board member Sue Norris and Amy S. Martin. Navajo Poet Tacey A. Atsitty who is the author of Rain Scald share her poetry from her publication and also some her new work.  She also spoke about her experience as a poet in America.  Navajo/ Hopi poet and multi-media artist Venaya Yazzie also shared her work and her narrative of how she is inspired to write and create are. Both women are residents of New Mexico.

The Zoom event was recorded and can be accessed via YouTube in the link below.

Poet, Venaya Yazzie

Poetry: Tacey Atstitty & Venaya Yazzie

Resilient Matriarchy: Indigenous Women's Art in Community will end in May 2021. The show in its entirety can be view online at:

Resilient Matriarchy: Indigenous Women's Art in Community

Blessings.

"Resilient Matriarch: Indigenous Women's Art in Community" Virtual Exhibition 2021

 

Today is a good day.  It's a good day to absorb some 'beauty' art from some beautyful Indigenous women artists.

I am glad to announce a virtual group art exhibition that opens today!

The show is titled, Resilient Matriarch: Indigenous Women's Art in Community and features the following women artists:

Tacey Atsitty, Avis Charley, Lynnette Haozous, Monica Wapaha, Venaya Yazzie.

My contribution to this exhibition is an homage to my late maternal grandmother, Jane Werito Yazzie, as she was the inspiration for this current work I submitted. Both the photographs and the prose writing are based on my experience with grief, loss of a matriarch,

and the conscious healing process.

The spirit of 'healing' and continue resilience is the root of this art exhibition. We offer this art as a means of the spirit of 'still here.'

May you find that goodness and shine as you view the virtual exhibition.

Resilient Matriarchy

Blessings,

VJ

Wandering with grief, and no water source

"Grief is the response to loss, particularly to the loss of someone or something that has died, to which a bond or affection was formed. Although conventionally focused on the emotional response to loss, it also has physical, cognitive, behavioral, social, cultural, spiritual and philosophical dimensions. While the terms are often used interchangeably, bereavement refers to the state of loss, and grief is the reaction to that loss."

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Photography series, "Portrait of a Grieving Desert Artist I"
Venaya J. Yazzie, 2020
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

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Photography series, "Portrait of a Grieving Desert Artist II"
Venaya J. Yazzie, 2020
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

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Living life after the loss of "mom" Jane is like wandering upon the hallways of desert lands with no water source.

Five months have passed since her last moment on this earth - and it feels as though my heart passed on and also left.  I am still numb from her abrupt departure.  I am, I feel now a true wanderer- trekking through the vertical blue hues of northwestern New Mexico skies.

I feel lost everyday now.  I now find my shadow lingering on the edge of sandstone mesas, while I work to navigate through the emptiness of horizontal eastern Dine' sage lands.

The memory of Shima' (mother) is imprinted on the palms of my hands; but  I am losing the sound of her voice in my mind.  I miss her everyday, every minute. I long to hear her language, the language of love, of ancestor - empathy - the kind she spoke in our Mother Tongue, nihi zaad.  This emptiness is visceral, it continually tugs at my brown desert skin, and I try to push it away, but it never leaves and therefore lives in my air space.

I don't know what the hour will bring to my eastern front door, yet I am anxious to hear matriarch narrative, the kind she delivered and nestled into the softness of my heart.  The life I had before "mom" passed on was sacred.  The fact that she physically existed and lived in this world with me, along side me - was like living on a cloud from heaven.  Now that she is no longer here,  I just don't know what this life is about.  Everyday I wake and search for a memory of her, a time when we had shared happiness and loving laughter, a time of life when I knew there was a person who loved me, who truly adored me.

I long for the days when I can share dialogue with Shima' again.  That moment will ease the weight of pain and loneliness that I now carry on my back bone. I long to see her glittering face smiling upon my humbled being. I long to hear her shimmering voice, expressing love, love, love to my humanness.  I long to hold her hands again and hear her say to me, "Shi'ch'e'e ayoo iinishni, I love you daughter."

Until then I wait and walk on.  Each day I find myself among the sagebrush lands she loved to be among, and I touch the tips of the blue-green sage.

Moments that brings some comfort.

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                                        "Grief is so human, and it hits everyone at one

                                                point or another, at least, in their lives.

                                        If you love, you will grieve, and that is just given."

BLESSINGS in all Things,

Venaya Yazzie

New Mexico Artist

The memory of the art 'process' and the matriarch

Our family's female matriarchs are the leaders and thus the 'backbone' of our family units.  For the Navajo people/ tribe, she is: mother, grandmother, aunt, sister, cousin-sister, great-aunt and other female relatives.

This being, she is our whole world, one who bundles us up in her hands- protecting us from harm.  From her we find and experience the tangible nature of what 'home' is in her arms embracing us. From her we experience the agape kind of human love that heals us: mentally, spiritually and emotionally.  In my family, she as matriarch was a member of the generation born during the time of the Great Depression in American society, sometimes referred to as the Post-World War Cohort generation born in 1928-1945. She embodied all that I mentioned, and she is the reason for my work now as a cultural educator and practicing southwest female artist.

In recent dialogue with a good friend, a sister, from the eastern coast of the U.S., our conversation steered to how the Post War Cohort generation of people are passing on.  Individuals such as the late and respected civil rights leader John Lewis is one of those individuals who exemplified the counterpart of the matriarch, as a strong, smart patriarch.  The late Mr. Lewis and my grandmother, Jane shared that strong and resilient common attitude to, live in such a way that worked to make the community a better place. My grandmother was  a constant positive energy and her life choices were an expression of a blessed life. The people from this time are the patriarchs matriarchs our families; our great-grandparents. I simply bring up this topic because this era of America and the society was what my grandmother experienced.  She was born in 1930 in northwest New Mexico on the open land of the Navajo lands.  Her existence may not have been of  monumental importance in the society of America, but her presence was ground-breaking for my Navajo family. In her constant need to create and make cultural items and art, she instilled in me her matriarch ways.

As long I can recall, my grandmother was a "creative spirit." She was a seamstress and traditional weaver.  These two skills were embedded in her DNA, passed to her in the blood from her mother and all of her Navajo matriarchs who lived before her.  They were weavers of beautiful, grand rugs and they designed and created their own Navajo women's garments and attire.

Venaya's grandmothers

Such contributions to the clothing culture of the American southwest was adopted and sometimes acculturated by mainstream fashion.  My grandmother and great-Aunts were steadfast in their cultural clothing expression and in my opinion they were ground-breakers in that way.  I share this image above as a visual example of such fashion design and creation by my grandmother Jane (pictured on left) and her her adopted-sister.

The ways of my matriarch Jane were instilled in my spirit on the day of my birth.  As I grew into adult womanhood, we perpetuated such activities women in our culture.  The recognition of innate gifts given to the human is vital in keeping the richness of a people's cultural ways alive and 'living."  I do not mean that one should boast about their skills, but simply and humbly dialogue about the process of making such items and about how those items are necessary to keep life balanced.

My late grandmother and her completed rug

Growing up I was witness on a constant basis on the process of making art in the weaving that was happening in the homes of the above mentioned women of my family.  Family is very important to the Navajo dynamics of the home life. When a family loses a matriarch the loss is felt deeply.  The days, week, months and years after the death of a loved one is important to be acknowledged, for by doing so the healing is taking place.  I know this well as I am amidst such ways now.

Blessings and healing,

Venaya

Forever my muse

Art as Therapy for a spirit in grief

My late maternal grandmother, Jane Werito Yazzie
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
Venaya J. Yazzie

Five months have passed since I lost my grandmother.  Everyday I wake up and begin the process of missing her again.  Every moment I experience now, I think about how she would have reacted to it.  I find myself planning my daily activities as if she was still physically present on earth.  My brain is confused and seems to be constantly trying to keep up with the ever-changing status of my spirit.  To be honest my heart is broken, I am broken.

I lived a full life with her with me.  She was always by my side. She was my rock, my muse.  Now that she has traveled on to the next world, I am here existing in what feels like a cloud.

My late maternal grandmother, Jane Werito Yazzie was my best friend. We were more than forty years apart in age yet we were similar in many ways.  We loved the same things in life, we talked the same, were amused by parallel things. Together, as grandmother and adopted grand-daughter, we faced the joys and challenges of Navajo life in the Four Corners community. "Mom" passed on from this life on earth to the next world in early February of this year and since then, my life has been a struggle.

As an artist I have sought out the possibility to get "inspired" again, but it has not been easy. In the last five months I found myself leaning on Art, but not being totally aware I was.  What I have found is that many of the avenues of art, including the 'process' of art are taken for granted.  I know that I am guilty of this too.

After this trauma of loss of a beloved matriarch, I realize that art should always be considered as a means of perpetuating the human / emotional, spiritual healing process.  I have wondered among the many online art galleries of global artists and I have created my own home gallery of artwork from Indigenous artists I have collected through the years.  What were my intentions of these activities? By doing these tangible things, did I think they would hopefully fill the emptiness and loneliness I was experiencing?  Today I am pondering these kind of questions, and am still asking myself.  What is my purpose as an artist?

In the five months since her passing, I have come to the realization that I have been able to work through my mourning of her.  This personal journey of healing has been initiated through all the months of the grieving process by unconsciously living the life of a multi-media artist.  I can truthfully express that art saved me, and that today art is healing my broken spirit! The concepts of art as therapy have worked as a spiritual source for me.  My awareness of art as a therapuetic act has allowed for me to find some balance again.  My work as a painter and multi-media artist has steered me be in my studio for several hours a day.  In that space of art tools and the art itself has brought me to a state of being that is tolerable and my creative flow of energy and thought is becoming clearer day by day. In my research of grief after the death of a loved one I have learned that it has 7 stages. They are fully emotional and include: shock (disbelief), deniel, bargaining, guilt, anger, depression and acceptance and hope.

So, where do I think I am existing within this paradigm of the human grieving process?

Well, I am consciously aware that I have accepted the death of my grandmother. I know though that there is now set time of when mourning and grief will end or can be cured.  I know that I carry hope now, that because of my belief of the spiritual existence of the Creator God, I believe I will see her again in the afterlife.

Art as therapy is a concept realized this week.  I see that the art-way is wholly ingrained within the Navajo material culture, but moreover, it is rooted in the Navajo Philosophy of 'Iina' - Life.  This was evident in my family through the women of my immediate and extended family, who in act existed as 'Creatives.' They lived lives of women artists.  This is a profound realization for me!  For example, my great grandmother who was born in 1907 was an avid weaver of traditional Navajo rugs and blankets. She was also an extraordinary seamstress.  My grandmother Jane also encompassed these traits and they both passed on this ways to me.  For that I know my life is blessed indeed!

My goal now is to continue doing my art in every aspect that I feel is relevant for me to continue healing my heart and spirit.  My grandmother  Jane gave me all of the goodness of her life, she was living a life with me in mind and now in adulthood I am living those ways through the Arts.  I know I will still have the bad days, the sad days and the grief will still linger, but as an artist I know that the one constant is my art.

I pray for blessings all around me. And too, I pray for blessings all around you.

Venaya