Page 18 - the NOISE April 2014

18 • APRIL 2014 • the NOISE arts & news • thenoise.us
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COMPOSITES OF A LIFETIME
On the far-flung east side of Flagstaff is the ranchland home and studio of Baje Whitethorne Sr. His first name, he tells me, in his quiet, almost sleepy-voiced manner, means “crazy old man painting.” Mr. Whitethorne, who received the Mayor’s Legacy Award for Lifetime Contribution to the Arts at the 2014 Violas, grew up on the Navajo Reservation near Shonto, the same community as renowned Flagstaff artist Shonto Begay. He grew up surrounded by brothers and uncles who were always drawing, so it was natural for him to pick up a pencil and copy what they’d drawn. Storytelling, also deeply embedded in his upbringing, came just as naturally, and later, Mr. Whitethorne would combine his two gifts in the eight chil- dren’s books he has illustrated, two of which he also authored.
“It’s easy to draw a picture,”he says.“Then you can go back and write your story by taking your image apart —you can take the foreground away, you can take the person away — and you tell the stories of each part individually.”
In his studio, paintings — from sandy-grained Picasso- esque abstracts to crisply illustrative depictions of Navajo life — lean three deep in places, and every flat surface is buried under sliding piles of blooming watercolors. Imagery from boyhood life on the Fourth Mesa and the canyons of Northern Arizona shows up again and again in his work: the homestead, the Hogan, the arbor, a tree with water barrels, a chair for sitting and for weaving, the corral, and always, the red cliffs, orange sandstone, and blue-shadowed rocks. Often there is a Native American man or woman in profile, compos- ites of his relations.
“It’s the information I saw as I kid,” he says. “I try to capture the abstract movement in the sandstone structure and the light, the way it bounces here and there. I’ve got a digital cam- era in my head that’s always going, and don’t have to charge it or anything. I can rewind to that point and it exaggerates all the activity I’ve seen.”
Many of the pieces in his studio grew out of demonstrations for the children he has worked with for more than 30 years.
“If you have no idea what you’re going to do, you just make random slashes or apply texture and it gives you a structure to work with,” he says. “Should you have some idea what you’re doing? Yes, but if there’s none, you just paint the whole thing black; put your tape across random places. There are 60 kids watching you ... and at a certain point you pull the tape up and they’re like ‘wow’... It shows the movement, and gives a
Bahe Whitethorne Sr. recently received the Mayor’s Award for Lifetime Contribution to the Arts at the 2014 Violas.
puzzly feeling.” It also creates the sense of viewing something through a cracked window pane — adding dimensionality and reinforcing the awareness of the observer.
Also making regular appearances in his work are Yeibichais, or spirit gods, that Mr. Whitethorne simply calls the “people in the rocks.” They figured in a forewarning childhood story that left a lasting impression on the artist. “My father always said people sit down to have coffee and time passes and they become part of the rocks. If you don’t listen, and wander off, they’ll take you into the rocks and we will never see you again.” These spirits are represented as teetering rock formations as well as in their more human form.
“I was moved by the Viola Award,” says Mr. Whitethorne, who was honored not only for his highly valued contributions to the artistic canon both locally and internationally, but for his continued service. “I think the thought was to acknowledge you as a person that recognizes that it’s the community, the people, who make you the artist you are.
“I visit most of the schools across the country and around the world because they see what you do, and they’d like their children, their community, to see and learn ... and also the joy and the passion you have sharing your knowledge as an artist, and your culture and language. And how you give time, not demand time from the community you live in, just give and try to have something for everybody. And they support your values, and understand your dedication to doing and sharing what you do ... which is your life.” BajeWhitethornesr.com
OF CLAY & INDUSTRY
Just starting out in his career is 2013 NAU graduate Ben Jordan, recipient of the Viola Award for Best Emerging Art- ist. Currently Mr. Jordan is a resident artist at The Red Lodge Clay Studio in Montana where he is working on his portfolio in pursuit of a Masters of Fine Arts in Ceramics.
“It’s a great opportunity to make a lot of work in a short amount of time,” he says of the three-month residency. Us- ing metal and clay, his sculptures, at once solid and alive with movement, explore the disconnect between individuals and with nature, due to industrialization, socio-economic factors, and technology. “Although clay is processed and steeped in industry, it is nonetheless organic,” he says. “An aspect of this irony and impurity is significant to my work.”
Recently he’s been moving in the direction of Mr. Skabe- lund, creating works that comment on the human manipula-