Adobe Gallery, Santa Fe

It was a treat to return to Adobe Gallery in Santa Fe last week. We had last been there in August during Indian Market, when the gallery hosted a reception and book signing for us.

Al Anthony

I wanted to see if Al Anthony had any new Tahoma paintings that I had not seen yet–yes, he did. It is called Indian Love Call. The painting, created in 1955, is similar to one painted in 1956 with the same name that is in our book, Quincy Tahoma: The Life and Legacy of a Navajo Artist. The main difference is that it is a mirror image. The painting is done in bright, bold colors and uncharacteristically for Tahoma, shows a scene that is Plains Indians (complete with teepees) rather than his own Navajo people.

And I wanted to ask Al about another Quincy Tahoma painting he recently sold  because he had told an interesting story on his web site about the owner. I was particularly interested in learning who had purchased that painting. (It is a losing battle, but Charnell and I TRY to keep track of the hundreds of Tahoma paintings.)

The Adobe website said that they acquired this  painting of a Navajo brave on a horse from an artist from Santa Clara Pueblo who had been a friend of Tahoma’s. The two of them were riding to Taos to sell two of Tahoma’s paintings, when a drink was spilled on one of the paintings. The artist friend took the “ruined” painting and kept it.  Now, more than 50 years later, the artist had decided to sell the Tahoma painting.  Adobe Gallery was able to have a restorer remove the stain so that the painting looked as good as new.

When I went in to see Al Anthony, I asked if he knew any more about the painting. He revealed that the artist-owner of the painting was a woman, and he surmised that she was Tahoma’s girlfriend back when they were riding in a car to Taos. (She must have been driving, since we have been told that Tahoma was always reluctant to learn to drive because of his impaired left arm).  He promised to contact the painting’s original owner and see if she would talk to us about her friendship with Tahoma.

Then I asked who had bought the painting.  It was purchased for the Buffalo Thunder Casino outside of Pojaque Pueblo, north of Santa Fe. It is very appropriate that Tahoma’s painting should find a home in a casino belonging to one of the pueblos, since he spent so much time with friends from the pueblos.

You can see several other paintings that illustrate how Tahoma copied his own creations when you look through Quincy Tahoma: The Life and Legacy of a Navajo Artist.

©2012 Quincy Tahoma Blog. All Rights Reserved.

I made a trip last week to Santa Fe and to Window Rock to sign copies of Quincy Tahoma: The Life and Legacy of a Navajo Artist. (And don’t miss our special December deal–a free gift with purchase).

Quincy Tahoma leaning against porch

I did introduce the book to a lot of people, but I also accumulated more Quincy Tahoma stories. Since we completed work on the book a year ago, and it was published in April of 2011, people keep bringing us more information about Tahoma’s life–and new paintings that we have never seen. It would be enough for a volume two if we were going to write a volume two, which we are not. So you’ll just have to read these stories here in the blog.

The recurring theme of my recent traip was Quincy’s Girlfriends. Because there were more than one, I’m going to spread out the  stories over more than one post.

It just takes one look at a photograph of Quincy Tahoma to know that he was a chick magnet.  So it stands to reason that those we tell you about in the book are not the entire inventory of Girls Quincy Dated.

Collected Works Bookstore cafe area

When I gave a slideshow talk about Quincy Tahoma at the Collected Works Bookstore, people breezed in from the cold Santa Fe night and were happy to get a steaming cup of coffee at the snack counter.  Two of the early arrivals thumbed through the book and exclaimed over the beautiful paintings.

They listened attentively as I talked about Quincy in Santa Fe and nodded when I mentioned people they knew, like Tonita Peña, the painter from Cochiti Pueblo who  lived and taught at Santa Fe Indian School for a time. During the Q & A, one of the men said, “Do you know what happened to that big painting that hung on the wall in Tonita Peña’s house?”

Turns out he grew up at Cochiti Pueblo and saw a large Tahoma painting in the house next door. But Tonita passed on and the painting disappeared.

Then the visitor from Cochiti dropped the bombshell.  “Quincy gave the painting to Cerilia (Tonita’s daughter). She was his girlfriend.”

Although we had heard plenty of rumors of various girlfriends, we tried not to include information in the book that we could not confirm more than once. Thus Cerilia, the pretty daughter of Tonita Peña who later married and moved to San Ildefonso, is mentioned in the book  but not much is made of her relationship with Tahoma.

I visited with Cerilia at San Ildefonso, and she said that Tahoma was older and that he came and taught her class some painting when she was at Santa Fe IndianSchool. But she denied they were girlfriend and boyfriend.  Well that denial came as a surprise to the man from Cochiti, who said that everybody knew she was Tahoma’s girlfriend.

I took his phone number and will talk to him some more. Who knows? We may even figure out what happened to that missing Tahoma painting.

©2012 Quincy Tahoma Blog. All Rights Reserved.

Quincy Tahoma leaning against porch

With all the wonderful publicity Tahoma and the book have been getting, like our appearance on the Bill Buckmaster show in Tucson and the listing of the book in Native Peoples Magazine, it is no wonder that our calendars keep filling up with people who want to know more about Quincy Tahoma: The Life and Legacy of a Navajo Artist.

We hope that you’re noting the events that are near you, and if we are not scheduled to visit your neighborhood–why not invite us?

November 30, 6:00 p.m., Collected Works Bookstore in Santa Fe, NM. Vera will be showing slides of Tahoma paintings and talking about his life in Santa Fe. She’ll also sign books for those who are looking for good holiday gifts.

December 2, all afternoon; December 3, all morning at the Navajo Nation Museum in Window Rock, AZ.  Vera will be signing books at the gift show of the museum during the annual Christmas Festival. Come see artists at work, Navajo-produced films, and great gifts for sale in the beautiful Navajo Nation Museum Gift Shop.

December 9-10: The Arizona Historical Society Book Fair starts with a reception on Friday evening (6-8 p.m.) at the Museum in Tucson and on Saturday from 10 a.m. to noon, Arizona authors, including Vera, will be signing books.

NEXT YEAR:

January 30, 1:00 p.m.: Vera will talk to the Heard Museum Guild in a meeting open to the public at the Heard Museum on North Central in Phoenix.

March 5, the 2nd day of the Heard Museum Indian Fair in Phoenix, we are scheduled to sign books between 2:00 and 4:00 p.m. at the Heard Museum Book Store.

March 10 and 11 is the gigantic Tucson Festival of Books.  We are invited to sign books at the Arizona State Museum booth and Vera will be on a panel one of those two days. (Stay tuned for exact time)

April 21, 10am to 1 pm: Vera will be back in Phoenix at the Heard Museum book store to sign books as part of Native Expressions Saturday. AT least one Navajo artist will also be present.

Surely there is a museum, gift shop, or book store in your community that we should be visiting with the Quincy Tahoma book!  Please let us know.

©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.

I have been reading a fascinating book about the life and business of Fred Harvey, who helped the Santa Fe railroad draw tourists to the western United States in the early twentieth century, and played a role in creating a market for American Indian art.  I plan to write a little more about that later, but first I thought I would ponder the effect of train travel on Tahoma’s life.

During our research for Quincy Tahoma: The Life and Legacy of a Navajo Artist, the first indication that we got of how important train travel was in the early years of Tahoma’s life, came in those valuable school records that the archivist at the National Archives office in Denver sent to us.

Railroad Station at Flagstaff today

There on the printed form for students, along with details like mother and father, birthdate, previous school attended, etc., we saw a line to fill in the “Nearest railroad station”.  Now that’s a detail you will not find on school forms nowadays! Not only that, but Tahoma, who lived in northern Arizona near Tuba City, had to travel slightly more than 77 miles from his home to his “nearest” railroad station in Flagstaff, Arizona–a journey of an hour and a half by car. However, his family did not have a car–they traveled by wagon. So getting TO the railroad station took almost as long as getting from there to Albuquerque on the train.

Lamy Station today

The next interesting thing we learned was that there was no railroad station in Santa Fe. Instead, the train stopped at the tiny community of Lamy, New Mexico. So when Tahoma was switched to the Santa Fe Indian School, he traveled 15 miles by bus from Lamy to get in to Santa Fe.

Yet, for the Navajos and pueblo Indians living in the remote stretches of northern Arizona and New Mexico, rail travel certainly was faster, more convenient, and easier (if more expensive) than traveling by horse and buggy.

We know that the Navajo artist traveled to Flagstaff from Santa Fe for a July 4 PowWow in the 1940′s, and he probably made that trip more than once.  He also could have used the train to get to Gallup for the All-Indian Ceremonial. We also know that he took the train home to see his adoptive family, the Saganitso’s at least one time, and they drove into Flagstaff from Tuba City in their horse-drawn wagon to pick him up.

Santa Fe railroad locomotive

The trains were drawn by steam engines and had tablecloth-service in the dining cars, provided by Fred Harvey.  Harvey’s empire also included restaurants along the way like the one at the beautiful La Posada hotel in Winslow, opened in 1929,(Corrected date)  and recently restored. Tahoma, who was perennially broke, may never have had the opportunity to eat at one of the Fred Harvey establishments, but it is interesting to consider him riding the train from Santa Fe and Albuquerque, through Gallup.

La Posada Hotel in Winslow, photo by Vera Marie

I can picture him gazing out at the stark beauty of the painted desert near Winslow as the train chugged to Flagstaff.

Painted Desert

Or gazing up at the Navajo’s sacred mountains of the West–the San Francisco peaks.

San Francisco peaks, Flagstaff

Train travel is not what it used to be. Have you traveled in the west on trains? What is the most memorable image in your mind from that trip?

Photos of the Flagstaff railroad station and La Posada Hotel are by Vera Marie, the others are from Flickr, used by Creative Commons License. Please click on those photos to learn more about the photographers and see more of their work.

©2012 Quincy Tahoma Blog. All Rights Reserved.

In a previous post, Vera mentioned one of Quincy Tahoma’s guardian angels — Spanish-American, hard-working, wheeler-dealer, political-pro Eppie Montoya.  Indeed, while he surely was an unlikely candidate for a guardian angel, he wasn’t the only one who fell into that category.

Quincy Tahoma photo, Courtesy of Jean Wallace McSwain

Eppie’s longtime friend, trader and nightclub owner James Silva was a resourceful man and knew how to turn a buck.  The son of a Lebanese immigrant, Jimmy worked hard — hand in hand with his lovely wife Ella — at their Bernalillo movie theater, grocery store and trading post from 1933 through the early 1940s. They had a son and five daughters to support, so to bring in more money, Jimmy moved his base of business operations in 1944 to Santa Fe.  Here, he opened a nightclub and liquor store, where Eppie was probably a customer from time to time. Jimmy and Eppie had known each other since school days and while their lives had taken different paths, they converged once again to help the Navajo artist who was struggling with alcoholism.

Jimmy had first recognized Quincy Tahoma’s talent when the artist was a student at the Santa Fe Indian School. Silva started buying Tahoma’s paintings at the school’s store and continued to buy, collect and sell them through the years. Jimmy Silva, the shrewd businessman, bought low and sold high.

And Jimmy Silva, the compassionate humanitarian, brought Quincy Tahoma paints and paper whenever the artist was incarcerated. He then picked up the paintings and sold them for Tahoma, returning a percentage. Jimmy tried often to stop Tahoma’s drinking by giving him a cozy place to paint and to sleep. In his Bernalillo complex, on the busy tourist Route 66, Silva set up a studio in a room behind his shop. Light poured in from a huge window and Tahoma, using a board to mix his paints, created a variety of paintings. When Silva could not be nearby, he asked his daughters to look in on Tahoma and make sure that he was not slipping out to get a drink.

1956 The Thundering Herd, Courtesy of the late Dolores Silva in memory of James and Ella Silva

Tahoma’s many paintings from this period range from gentle deer to warriors chasing buffalo, and two very unusual paintings. A thundering herd of buffalo was painted in three stages, according to Silva’s daughter Rose. She said Tahoma explained to her father that the first horizontal band was the buffalo herd, the second the sky/storm, and the third the base.

1956 Christ on the Cross, Courtesy of the late Dolores Silva in memory of James and Ella Silva

And to show his gratitude for Jim and Ella Silva’s many kindnesses, Tahoma painted a subject very different for him, but familiar to this deeply religious Catholic family. The head of Christ, brow circled with a crown of thorns, portrays deep sorrow and pain. In the lower right hand corner, the thumbnail sketch with his signature—the next chapter—shows Christ on the cross.

Tahoma also a painted a similar portrait of Christ for his other shima (Navajo for mother), Eppie’s wife Josie. Tahoma, the rolling stone, never stayed long in one place, but the Montoyas and the Silvas  provided homes in Santa Fe and in Bernalillo and surrogate families when he needed a secure base.

Learn more about Tahoma’s various residences as he moved from place to place, when you read Quincy Tahoma: The Life and Legacy of a Navajo Artist. You can receive the earliest copy available. If you click the Buy Now button in the right hand column, we’ll send the book to you in the next two weeks.

And by the way, our third newsletter went out this morning, with paintings by Tahoma, news about appearances, and more. If you did not receive one, you can sign up in the subscription form in the right hand column and we’ll send you the one you missed. Or if you want a sample, click on this link to the News about the Quincy Tahoma Book.

©2012 Quincy Tahoma Blog. All Rights Reserved.