7/11/2009 10:25:00 PM
Artists explore traditional and new media at Indian Market
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Matt Hinshaw/The Daily Courier
Traditional Navajo Weaver Nanabah Aragon weaves part of a rug Saturday morning at the Prescott Indian Art Market outside the Sharlot Hall Museum.
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| Hopi artist Ramson Lomatewama shapes a piece of glass. Lomatewama's art remains true to his culture although he uses a non-traditional medium.
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More than a decade ago, Hopi artist Ramson Lomatewama broke the mold in the Native American arts community when he delved into glass-blowing. And yet despite pursuing a non-traditional medium, he did not abandon his cultural roots.
Today, Lomatewama creates conventional glass pieces such as bowls, vases and hummingbird feeders, but he incorporates the traditional Hopi cultural themes of nature and the spirit world into them - as well as Indian figurines - using myriad pieces of colored glass.
"As Hopis, our main vehicle for communicating is the use of color," Lomatewama said Friday before the 12th annual Prescott Indian Art Market this weekend on the Sharlot Hall Museum's plaza. "In Hopi culture, different colors symbolize different concepts or ideas."
Lomatewama, who demonstrated glass-blowing in a vacant lot next to the museum Saturday, said part of the reason he attends shows such as Sharlot Hall's is to educate the public about Indian artists who are transitioning from traditional Native American art to more contemporary forms.
"There is a sector of the world that still believes Native American art should be pottery, porcupine quill work and flutes - what's come to be stereotypical items," he said. "It's an awakening for some people. Once we explain to them all the ins and outs of glass art and Native American culture, then it seems to spark another way of looking at art and cultures in general."
Lomatewama learned glass-blowing from Prescott hot glass artist Jim Antonius and from artisans in a 40-hour workshop at the Philabaum Studio in Tucson.
Although he does not have much formal training, his desire and motivation have transformed him into a well-respected artist.
About 15 years ago, Lomatewama visited the Corning Glassworks in Corning, N.Y., where he watched glassblowers for an entire afternoon. Soon thereafter, he said he found his calling in life.
Now, Lomatewama, 55, lives in Hotevilla, Ariz., on the Hopi Reservation, where he used to teach junior high school. He produces many of his glass pieces on the reservation with his apprentice, Bryson Nequatewa, and his wife, Jessica.
"We work as a team," said Jessica, who grinds and polishes the bases of the figurines her husband creates. "I help him with the 'hot' side and I do all the 'cool' working side of the glass. At home, when I'm working, I'm in an area where it's quiet. That helps me to be calm, patient and focused."
Nequatewa, who has his own booth at this weekend's Indian Art Market, is a welder by trade. He makes elegant finely carved kachina dolls as well as glass figurines.
"I guess it's the heat that drove me to it," said a chuckling Nequatewa of his attraction to glasswork. "I got hooked on it. Ramson can draw and I can weld, so we make a good group."
Lomatewama is also an adjunct professor of humanities, which includes Native American studies and glass art, at North Central College in Naperville, Ill. In addition, he keeps his hands in traditional Hopi art, making silver jewelry and carving kachina dolls, while writing published poetry.
"Along the way, I've learned not only how to create art but how to design and build my own equipment," said Lomatewama, who hand-made his own glassmaking kilns out of scrap metal and brick on a mobile unit. "The primary goal of me being here in Prescott is to educate the public, specifically about Hopi culture and philosophy as it relates to art."
The Indian Art Market show continues today from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Sharlot Hall Museum, 415 W. Gurley St., in downtown Prescott.
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