May 4, 2009
Tags: painting, Santa Fe Police, Tahoma, Tahoma's death
Bundy's majestic stallion is quite possibly the last painting that Quincy Tahoma created.
In the 1950s, Abundio Armijo, Jr. was the Santa Fe Police Department’s photographer and investigator. Bundy had a little lab at the jail which he let Quincy Tahoma use as an art studio of sorts whenever the painter was drying out from public intoxication.
One day, the Navajo artist brought a beautiful painting of a majestic stallion to the jail to give to Bundy in appreciation for his kindness. Little did Bundy know that he would be called to Tahoma’s apartment just two weeks later to record the artist’s death.
To the best of our knowledge, this may be the last painting that Tahoma created. You can see Bundy and his 1956 painting, as well as some other owners and their paintings, in the slide show on the home page at our Tahoma web page.
Do you know of any other paintings Tahoma produced shortly before his death in October 1956?
Photo by Charnell Havens. All rights reserved.
Tags: jailer, jailor, New Mexico, painting, Quincy Tahoma
Cliffor Brito and his custom painting
It was certainly an unusual friendship, the jailer and the prisoner. Or was it?!!
Quincy Tahoma seemed to make friends everywhere he went, and the Santa Fe jail was no exception. As a 1950s frequent guest due to public intoxication, the young Navajo endeared himself to the guard, Clifford Brito, who let the artist out of his cell to perform janitorial duties and to paint.
Tahoma showed his gratitude by painting a beautiful scene of a brave rounding up horses. The art work was custom designed to fit over the doorway of the jailer’s mobile home and Brito treasured that painting until his death in 2008.
You can view Clifford Brito and his painting in the slide show on the home page of the Tahoma web site. I took this picture when I interviewed him in 2004 during a research trip to New Mexico.
Do you know of other instances of jailers and prisoners becoming friends? Have you heard any other jail-time stories about Quincy Tahoma? We were told, for instance, that he was briefly incarcerated in Indiana or Illinois while on a road trip with a friend, but the details of that adventure are scant.
Photograph by Charnell Havens. All rights reserved.
