BY KAY LOCKRIDGE
This year, artists participating in the eighth annual Native Treasures Indian Arts Festival were invited to create special “treasure boxes” to be sold at the Friday evening Benefit Pre-Sale Party. The party offers artists and collectors the opportunity to come together in a festive atmosphere; the one-of-a-kind boxes give collectors the opportunity to share artists’ hopes, dreams and prayers; and the money raised supports exhibits at the Museum of Indian Arts & Culture.
Jeweler Loren Aragon’s box, Grant Me This, reflects the traditions of the Diné (Navajo) people.
BOXES HOLD DREAMS, PRAYERS, HOPES
Special pre-sale supports Museum of Indian Arts & Culture
DETAILS The Native Treasures Indian Arts Festival Benefit Pre-Sale Party takes place Friday, May 25, from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. at the Santa Fe Community Convention Center, 201 W. Marcy St. Tickets are $100 per person and include an Early Bird ticket for Saturday’s show. Purchase tickets online at www.ticketssantafe.org, at the Lensic Performing Arts Center box office, or call 988-1234.
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2012 NATIVE TREASURES
Comanche painter Nocona Burgess said he wanted to “put the record straight” with a special set of two boxes that he calls Truth and Lies. He said they represent the real story of his great-great-grandfather, Quanah Parker. The boxes look and open like books, each with a latch. “Stories about Quanah Parker have become clouded and just plain wrong down through history,” Burgess said. “These boxes tell what’s true and what’s not.” Quanah Parker, whose mother was a white woman captured by the Comanches, grew up to become a Comanche chief and traveled to Washington, D.C., where he met with President Theodore Roosevelt. In effect, Parker lived two lives, and these boxes reflect that: The portrait on one box shows Parker in Anglo clothes of the time — a suit, tie and bowler hat; the second box displays a portrait of Parker in his Indian chief attire. Together, Burgess said, they represent the “real” Quanah Parker. Ojibway jeweler Wanesia Misquadace said her box, titled My Sweet Grass Dancer, honors her son and his first time dancing at a powwow when he was 4 years old. Misquadace, an Institute of American Indian Arts graduate, works in a medium called birch bark biting. “Folding the bark and separating the pieces into thin layers, I vary the pressure of each bite so that I can shade and texture my designs,” she said. “I believe I am one of only a handful of artists in North America who create the bitings,” an Ojibway tradition. “What I do is take the traditional birch bark basket, incorporate silver [into the design] and make it my own,” she said. “These vessels represent stories of my
people, and they help preserve our prayers and ceremonies, our experiences and our people.” The silver figure atop her treasure box represents her son in dance. Jeweler Loren Aragon’s box, Grant Me This, reflects the traditions of the Diné (Navajo) people. “Anything beautiful in this world is accepted, and we inhale the essence of it,” Aragon said. “Your wishes are your prayers.” The box was created from a gourd, a medium Aragon often uses. Other materials include copper, aluminum and paint. He achieved a dimpled effect by gouging out the skin of the gourd with a rotary tool. “Working with the gourd gives you a feel for it,” Aragon said. Aragon painted traditional floral designs — suggesting things being rooted — that often are drawn from pottery shards he puts together to form larger shapes. Incorporating these designs in a circular shape is his signature. A copper design attached to the top of the gourd embodies four circles. “Four is a sacred number to us and represents many important things — the four seasons, four directions and four stages of life,” Aragon said. “The overall design of the box is a request to grant one’s wishes throughout one’s life.” Kiowa jeweler Keri Ataumbi suggested her treasure box, How We Got the Sun, is a piece that encourages the beholder to consider one of the mysteries of creation. Using such materials as rosewood from India, smoked buckskin, sterling silver, yellow diamonds, gold and mirrors, the multilayered box follows the Kiowa tale of Uncle Sainday and his friends — Fox, Hawk and Deer — as they find a way to bring the sun and its heat to our side of the world, Ataumbi said. To aid in their quest, she also created four pairs of uniquely designed aviator sunglasses incorporating everything from sterling silver to deer antler and opal that can be purchased separately or with the box. The treasure boxes will be for sale at prices set by the artists; 25 percent of the proceeds from the sales go to the Museum of Indian Arts & Culture. A special “Best of Box” award will be announced and the 2012 Living Treasure award will be presented to Tony Abeyta during the party.