Upcoming Topics...

Lately I haven't had the time to post too much.  I will have time this coming week to touch on some new topics related to collecting Kachinas.  I will be discussing the more rare flatdolls or Puchtithu of the New Mexico Pueblos, specifically those of Acoma and I will present some photos to accompany the post.

My Other Kachina Related Interest...Painting Old Kachinas in Watercolors

     One of my other kachina-related interests is painting old kachina dolls that I have owned, or those from museum collections, in watercolors.  The idea came to over time.  As I began developing my collection, I increasingly wanted older, therefore, more expensive dolls for my collection.  I truly wanted to get my hands on some dolls that I quite simply could not afford.  The idea eventually dawned on me that if I could teach myself how to paint and if I could do it well enough, I could capture the essence of any carving I desired.  I chose watercolors for my medium.  At the time it was a simple choice, because watercolors were the only paints I had ever experimented with during my childhood.  Little did I know that it is one of the most difficult media to become skilled at.  Nobody informed me,  so I worked at becoming skilled with the watercolor paints.  A year or so after I began this experiment, my paintings were looking the way I wanted them to look.  I began to exhibit my paintings in gallery showings and sold a few.
     When I paint kachinas, I am capturing the essence of the Kachina Doll and creating a mood that is not only a translation of the original, but also a co-creation of the original artist and myself.  I try to convey an organic and primordial feel to the doll as if you could reach out and touch it.  I like to bring out the character of these old carvings with all of their flaws, breaks, wear and missing paint exposing the bare cottonwood root.  I want to bring the viewer a sense of awe and mystery.  This is what my kachina paintings are all about.

My First Trip to Hopi...

     In the last post I described in part the harvesting of Cottonwood Root or "paako" that I occasionally trade to the Hopi carvers.  Now I would like to share with you a little bit about my first trading foray at Hopi.  It was September of 2001 and I had driven down to Tucson to visit family and then I was on to Hopi with my trunk-load of paako to trade at Hopi. 
     I arrived in the late morning morning at Tsakurshovi, which if I remember correctly is located on 3rd Mesa.  It has been a while since my last trip, so please forgive me for any errors.  I spoke with Joseph Day, who along with his Hopi wife Janice, owns Tsakurshovi, a trading post where many traditional kachina carvers come to sell their crafts.  I spoke briefly with Joseph and offered to come back with any root that I hadn't traded.  I passed 2nd Mesa and drove on to 1st Mesa.  I parked near Ponsi Hall in Sichomovi (Middle Village) and many carvers came to me to see what I had to trade.   I really didn't know what I was doing.  I gave some carvers root with their word that they would send me dolls that they had agreed to carve for me, which ended up being hard-learned lesson, for none of them ever did.  I must have had the word "sucker" written on my forehead.  We had exchanged addresses and phone numbers and wehn I called asking for my dolls, the reply was always..."I will send it to you soon...in a few weeks."  I did work out a few trades on the spot.  V.J. Poleahla, who was a very talented carver and now deceased, gave me a very nice Hey Heya Puchtihu for a little bit of cash and some paako.  The other nice trade I made was with Joseph Day.  I returned to Tsakurshovi with some paako and he took 4 or 5 pieces and I gave him some cash for a very nice Suyang Evu (Left-handed Warrior) by Jarrett James. 
     Despite the lessons I had to learn....never hand over root w/o carving in hand, I had a great time and I became more adept at the trading game if you will.  There are certain ways to go about working out a trade and estalishing a rapport with certain carvers helps.  I will write more about this later.