I just love a story with a happy ending, don’t you?

Signing table, gift shop, Navajo Nation Museum, Window Rock

On December 12, I wrote about my visit to the Keshmish Festival at Window Rock, which was held the first weekend in December at the Navajo Nation Museum. In passing, I said:

A young girl came by who wanted to buy the Tahoma book for school, but could not afford it. I gave her information to pass on to her school so they might purchase it for their library.

Navajo Prep, Mascot Image from Facebook Page

A fan of Quincy Tahoma, who has bought copies of Quincy Tahoma: The Life and Legacy of a Navajo Artist for herself and as a gift, wrote to us and said she wanted to give a copy of the book to that school. Although I had not written down the name of the young woman who was interested in the book, I did remember her school was Navajo Preparatory. I looked it up on line and found out the 20-year-old school was located in Farmington, New Mexico. Although students stay in residence at Navajo Prep, this is a far cry from the boarding schools of Tahoma’s childhood and before. Whereas those students were prepared for “practical skills” like cooking and shoemaking,  about 95%  of each graduating class of Navajo Prep goes on to college.

I wrote to the school librarian and explained the wishes of the would-be donor.

Unfortunately, this all happened just before Christmas, so I did not hear back until a week into the new year. The answer from Ms. Sategna, the librarian, was YES! Not only was she delighted to have a copy of the book, but when she got my note, she put a notice up asking who the student was that attended Keshmish and saw the Tahoma book. Very soon the young woman appeared, and they had a long conversation about her interest in the book.

Our donor, who by coincidence, raises sheep–just as many Navajo do–promptly paid for a book through Paypal, and I sent it off to Navajo Preparatory School. She plans to donate another book to another Western Indian tribal school in the near future.

For privacy reasons, the librarian is not giving out the name of the young woman who started this story rolling, but I am hoping that she may contact us some time and let us know how she likes the book, and how it may influence her education.

One more coincidence–you may know that Charnell and I grew up in Ohio. Well guess where the librarian is from?  Right! She hails from Ohio, although she has lived on the Navajo reservation for most of her adult life.

I’m going to let our donor, who also wants to remain anonymous, have the last word:

Two young people look at Tahoma's book at Keshmish

 ”Perhaps other people will use this idea to put these books in schools as inspiration for the children.  It is my biggest hope that this student does communicate with you and you can encourage her in her art.” 

Quincy Tahoma loved children and frequently helped children learn to draw and paint. We know that he would appreciate knowing that his life and paintings might inspire young artists.

We know that the former librarian of Santa Fe Indian School bought a book for that school, and a teacher bought one for another school on the Navajo reservation. Would you like to join this effort and donate a book to a Native American school? Let us know.

©2012 Quincy Tahoma Blog. All Rights Reserved.

Bill Buckmaster, Tucson radio station KVOI, with Vera and Charnell

Bill Buckmaster of Tucson’s radio station KVOI is one very talented guy!  His interview-style broadcast, Buckmaster Show, airs weekdays at noon PST and is enjoyed in more than 80 countries — either live or thorough his podcasts.  Over the last two decades, Bill has earned five individual Emmy Award nominations, the coveted Silver Circle Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, and a slew of other honors too lengthy to include in this post.

Behind every great man, there is a woman ...

Suffice it to say, Buckmaster is a real pro, so Vera and I were delighted that he wanted to interview us about our book Quincy Tahoma: The Life and Legacy of a Navajo Artist.  His rapid-fire questions covered the gamut from our research and writing the book to Tahoma’s roller coaster life and his compelling artwork.  Golly, I don’t know how Bill did it, but he managed to summarize our 13+ years of effort in a 15-minute interview!   You can listen to us at about 44:24 on the October 25 2011 recording.

Part of the El Charro, which takes up almost a city block and has multiple architecture segments

After we caught our breath from the interview, we scooted over to the El Charro Cafe in downtown Tucson for a book signing.  Established in 1922, El Charro is The Nation’s Oldest Mexican Restaurant in continuous operation by the same family.  The restaurant is known for its innovative Tucson style Mexican Food which is, as Gourmet Magazine wrote, truly “A Taste Explosion”.  (I can attest to that after savoring their pumpkin pecan tamale!)

Debbie Whitbey, the El Charro manager, arranged a delightful reception area on the patio for our book signing. Debbie herself spent quite a few minutes talking to Vera and me about Tahoma and enjoying the book’s images of his paintings. Soon, more Tahoma afficianodos arrived and several of them had known Vera in her former Tucson/Phoenix capacities.  It must have felt like old home week — a very special time — for her! What have been special times for you?

Vera chats with some of the gals who showed up for the book signing

 All pictures are the property of Charnell Havens. Please do not reuse any photographs without permission from the photographer.

©2012 Quincy Tahoma Blog. All Rights Reserved.

Welcome to The Amerind Foundation

On the road again — this time from the Heard Museum in Phoenix to The Amerind Foundation in Dragoon AZ for a presentation and book signing.

First peek at The Amerind as we drove up the dirt road

Founded in 1937 by William Shirley Fulton, the Amerind Foundation is a private nonprofit anthropological and archaeological museum and research center dedicated to the preservation and interpretation of Native American cultures and their histories. The Amerind is located in spectacular Texas Canyon in the Little Dragoon Mountains of southeastern Arizona, and it houses one of the finest private collections of Native American art and artifacts in the country.

Amerind volunteers who came to learn more about Quincy Tahoma

The curator, Dr. Eric Kaldahl, served as our wonderful host for the event, and  several of the Foundation’s dedicated volunteers came to hear the presentation of Quincy Tahoma: The Life and Legacy of a Navajo Artist.

Vera and Charnell with The Amerind's 1949 painting, Navajo Sing, by Quincy Tahoma

The Amerind has two Tahoma paintings and one of them, Navajo Sing, has more than 100 people in the scene.  It is one of the artist’s most famous works and Carol Charnley, Museum Coordinator, tells us that The Amerind is very pleased to have it in its collection.

Chuck wagon a la 2011

After the presentation and book signing, Vera and I got some grub from the modern-day version of a chuck wagon and retired to our sumptuous quarters in The Amerind’s guest quarters.  Okay, so we were pampered and we enjoyed every moment of it!  What are some of the special experiences you have enjoyed?

Vera relaxes in her guest quarters room after a busy day

Photos in this post are all the property of Charnell Havens. Do not reuse without the permission of the photographer.

©2012 Quincy Tahoma Blog. All Rights Reserved.

A View of the Heard Museum entrance from the Courtyard

I’m back in Virginia after a fantastic week of book signings and presentations with co-author Vera Marie Badertscher in her home state of Arizona.  Vera and I live so far apart geographically that getting together to tell folks about Quincy Tahoma: The Life and Legacy of a Navajo Artist is a rare treat indeed!  This is only the second time we’ve gotten together since the book was published.  (The first was in Santa Fe to kick off the 2011 Indian Market.)

Co-authors Charnell and Vera at the Heard Museum book signing

Our first stop was the Heard Museum  of Native Cultures and Art in Phoenix. The Heard is dedicated to educating the public about the heritage and living cultures and arts of Native peoples, with an emphasis on the peoples of the Southwest.  Since its founding by Dwight and Maie Bartlett Heard in 1929 – as a small museum in a small Southwestern town – the Heard has grown in size and stature to where now it is recognized internationally for the quality of its collections, its educational programming and its festivals.

1956 Navajo Scout, catalog # IAC1746, Courtesy of the Heard Museum

The Heard owns nineteen original paintings by Quincy Tahoma and, while they were not on display during our book signing, Vera and I were able to show visitors some images of them on a rotating slide show.  Two of the paintings, Old Timers and Riding for the Fun, are included in the book on pages 103 and 178, so we’re not showing them here.  But, to whet your appetite for seeing the remaining seventeen, we’re including two more paintings from the Heard collection —  a striking 1956 Navajo scout scene and a humorous 1950 painting of some cowpokes trying to lasso a buffalo.

1950 unnamed buffalo painting, catalog # IAC773, Courtesy of the Heard Museum

Did you miss meeting us on October 22?  Well, you’ve got another opportunity!  Come to Phoenix on January 30 for a Heard Museum Guild presentation and book signing, or on March 3 for the Heard Museum Fair.  Vera will be there for sure and, if at all possible, I’ll be there too. Where would you like us to go for a book signing near you?

Top photo by Charnell; Photo of the authors by Sam Lowe; other two from the Heard Museum. Please do not reuse without permission from the respective owners.

©2012 Quincy Tahoma Blog. All Rights Reserved.

A reporter asked me recently what I thought about Dorothy Dunn and her teaching at the Santa Fe Indian School. There are definitely two schools of thought, as the reporter pointed out.

Either Dorothy Dunn was enormously helpful to her young American Indian students like Quincy Tahoma, opening up a world of art to them and helping introduce their work as real art rather than ethnographic curiosity.

OR Dorothy Dunn was intrusive and destructive of the American Indian culture, trying to force upon them the unnatural aping of the dominant white culture. That question is not easy to answer.  I do believe that Dorothy Dunn and many of the people who were active in the Santa Fe Indian scene in the first half of the 20th century were guilty of paternalism. However, I have to look at Dunn and her colleagues in the context of the age in which they lived.

Yes, there is no doubt they were paternalistic in their desire to “improve” the American Indians by teaching them to live more like the white people around them, setting the values of non-Indian citizens as a standard, while pretty much remaining ignorant of the values of the Indian people. On the other hand, these are non-Indians who devoted much if not all of their lives fighting the government to improve the education of Indian children, in accordance with earlier treaties.

Untitled, 1938. Prairie dog. Catalog Courtesy of Arizona State Museum Archives, University of Arizona, Tucson. Francis H. Elmore Collection.

People like Dunn fought to allow students to learn about their own culture–although most of that learning came from non-Indian anthropologists and ethnographers rather than from the leaders of the Dine or the Pueblo elders.

Dunn really believed that every American Indian child had innate artistic ability. From our point of view, that it smacks of stereotyping. Even worse, in our view today, Dunn’s rules for the children’s art (see early Quincy Tahoma painting above) encouraged them to continue to paint the same subjects that their ancient ancestors had painted on cave or Kiva walls and not ever to paint pictures with sweeping landscapes or three-dimensional perspective.

Her concept of ideal American Indian art, founded in her study of the discovery of ancient Kiva paintings, led her to try to freeze development in time. There would be no cartoons. There would be no fantasy–she preferred simple reproductions of daily life. Murals were popular, because that was the way Natives were supposedto paint. There would be no use of innovative materials–although ironically her chosen medium of watercolor had been unknown to Natives until it was introduced by archaeologists and schools.

1955 Stolen Horses, Courtesy of Bruce Hartman

As we can see perfectly clearly in Quincy Tahoma’s paintings, a real artist will not be bound by such strictures. One cannot freeze the development of art. We heard from more than one artist who studied under Dunn that they learned more from each other than from Dunn. And although Quincy Tahoma stayed with the medium that Dunn taught–always painting in watercolor, he experimented with cartoons, and stretched his style far beyond what she had held up as ideal.

Dunn particularly disapproved of the violence in some of his paintings. So if the negatives about Dunn were largely ignored by her students, did she do harm? And did she do good?

Quincy Tahoma for one, learned how to sell his art, how to talk about it and how to enter it in competitions and arrange shows at galleries and museums.  He learned the benefit of staying true to the details of costumes from Dunn. From other students and from his own striving for perfection, he learned how to portray the movements of animals and men.

It seems to me worthwhile to think about how the non-Indians of Santa Fe thought and why they thought that way and what their ultimate influence was. I’ll talk in future posts about some of the other powerhouses that populated Santa Fe in the first half of the twentieth century.

You can read more about Dorothy Dunn in Quincy Tahoma: The Life and Legacy of a Navajo Artist.

Which side would you come down on in the argument about Dorothy Dunn?

©2012 Quincy Tahoma Blog. All Rights Reserved.

Second photo taken by T. Harmon Parkhurst of his studio

The previous post zeroed in on a photograph of T. Harmon Parkhurst’s studio provided by Marilyn Casabonne. It contained a historical treasure-trove of Quincy Tahoma paintings.  What could be better?  How about two more Parkhurst photos that show many more Tahoma paintings?

Spearing Dinner, 1946. Courtesy of a Private Collector.

In the second photo, the superimposed red number 1 (right side, large painting framed with white matte) identifies a 1946 painting entitled Spearing Dinner.  Originally purchased by Bernalillo trader James Silva and now in the hands of a new owner, it can be seen on page 199 of the book Quincy Tahoma: The Life and Legacy of a Navajo Artist. Other paintings in this snapshot are similar to ones I have seen (or photographed while researching Tahoma’s art), but there were no additional exact matches.  The same holds true for the third and last photo of the series.

Cropped portion of the third snapshot of Parkhurst's studio

I cropped the final snapshot  so the reader could see the photograph, outlined by a red box, that T. Harmon Parkhurst took of Quincy Tahoma.  This official portrait of the Navajo artist appears on page 184 of the book, where it has a special place of honor in the Epilogue.

Autographed photo of Quincy Tahoma, now known to be taken in 1946, Courtesy of the Family of Richard G. Jones.

Tahoma gave a signed copy to Dick Jones, with whom he became friends during their imprisonment in 1947.  Also, a large color version of the portrait currently is on display at Adobe Galleryin Santa Fe through September 20, courtesy of collector Mark O. Rosaker.  Clearly, this portrait started as a T. Harmon Parkhurst photograph and it was probably colored using Marshall oils (the popular technology in the 1940s and 1950s, folks!)

Portrait of Quincy Tahoma on display at Adobe Gallery, Courtesy of Mark O. Rosacker

It’s possible that Quincy Tahoma himself colored the portrait, since he reportedly did that type of work for photographer Parkhurst. So, thanks to Marilyn Casabonne, several mysteries have been solved by these three photographs of the Parkhurst studio.

• We now know that they were taken in 1946, as was the portrait of Tahoma .
• We also know that Quincy Tahoma’s ability to create similar (look-alike) scenes from memory was even more developed and astonishing than we had previously thought.
• And we know that T. Harmon Parkhurst was one of Tahoma’s best cheerleaders, featuring his watercolors throughout his studio on Don Gaspar Street.  We have known for quite some time that Tahoma’s art sold quickly, so the abundance of his paintings in Parkhurst’s photos speaks to how prolific an artist he was.

How exciting is it to unravel bits and pieces of history from three 8×10 black and white photos  60+ years old?! All rights are reserved for all photos used in this post. If you want to compare these paintings and the Tahoma portrait, you can purchase the book from the Buy Now box on the right hand top of the page. We would love to locate some of the other Tahoma paintings shown in this pictures. Even with more than 250 of Quincy’s paintings featured in Quincy Tahoma: The Life and Legacy of a Navajo Artist, we know that there are many we have never located. Do you have any leads for us? (Reminder: if you are reading this in your e-mail, you will need to click over to the website to respond).

©2012 Quincy Tahoma Blog. All Rights Reserved.

Post by Charnell

Marilyn Casabonne with her parents, photo by T. Harmon Parkhurst

Marilyn Casabonne smiled as she sorted through her parents’ Santa Fe memorabilia. Her mind floated back to early childhood days when her family and photographer T. Harmon Parkhurst spent many weekends at a mountain retreat.  Parkhurst snapped a picture of Lyn at age three with her parents at one of those gatherings and to this day, more than seventy years later, it hangs in a place of honor in her home.

Lyn’s sorting produced more than sweet memories of her childhood.  She found three well-preserved black and white 8 x 10s taken by Parkhurst of his studio sometime in the 1946-1950 timeframe. Those photos answer several of the questions Vera and I had about the years the photographer let Navajo artist Quincy Tahoma paint in a loft of his studio on Don Gaspar street in Santa Fe.

One wall of the Parkhurst Studio circa 1946

The first glimpse inside Parkhurst’s Studio shows Tahoma’s paintings displayed on two walls, beside a painting by another (unknown) artist; many Navajo Indian rugs; pieces of pueblo pottery; and a professional photograph by Parkhurst.  The door toward the end of the main wall suggests a depth to the shelf on which the pottery is displayed, and that area may indeed have served as Tahoma’s loft during the early- to mid- 1940s.

If you click on the Parkhurst photo to enlarge it, you’ll find that I’ve superimposed red numbers at the tops of three paintings.

Buffalo Hunt, 1945. Accession #: 2003.153.2. Gift of Duane and Beverly Miller to the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum

Number 1 is the 1945 Buffalo Hunt painting owned by Duane and Beverly Miller until they donated it in 2003 to the famous  National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City.  We received permission to use the digital image too late to include it in the book Quincy Tahoma: The Life and Legacy of a Navajo Artist, but here it is for you to enjoy.

Number 2 is a 1946 Buffalo Hunt painting currently owned by the Philbrook Museum in Tulsa.  I photographed that painting when I visited the Philbrook several years ago (and therefore can verify it’s the same one as is in this photograph) but cannot include it in this post in the absence of reproduction rights.

Cut-out of the painting (labeled #3) in the Parkhurst Studio photo

©2012 Quincy Tahoma Blog. All Rights Reserved.

High priced Pottery and free dog biscuits

This photo is posted as part of Travel Photo Thursday, started by Budget Travel Sandbox where you can see a gorgeous Canadian sunset. You can also click on the names under her post to see more Travel Photo Thursday pictures.

©2012 Quincy Tahoma Blog. All Rights Reserved.