The artist, Jetsonorama at work
Recently, a
very thoughtful and informative article at
High Country News about a street artist who has lived on the Navajo reservation for the past 25 years caught my eye. I recognized the roadside art from my last trip through the rez and wanted to know more. He goes by the moniker Jetsonorama for his art, but his full-time job is as the only permanent physician at the Indian Health Service at Inscription House in Arizona.
I first became aware of his work with a report of his contribution to 350.org's challenge to street artists around the world to create art that reflected local effects of climate change. His piece was a beautiful Navajo baby with a large lump of coal looming over its
Navajo baby subject with finished piece,
note traditional Navajo leggings and moccasins on baby.
This is one of several installations in Arizona
head — "a metaphorical black cloud over the head of future generations if we keep burning fossil fuels." The Navajo Nation is home to the largest coal-mining operation in the Southwest run by the largest private-sector coal company in the world, Peabody Energy. The electricity generated on the rez supplies cities from Denver to Los Angeles. The Navajo often burn coal for fuel in their homes, causing respiratory illnesses. Jetsonorama's piece serves as a message that energy from coal is contributing to climate change.
The artist with his Save the San Francisco Peaks
installation in Flagstaff
Last year, Jetsonorama teamed up with activists who have been fighting a legal battle since 2005 to prevent the Snowbowl ski resort from further desecrating the San Francisco Peaks near Flagstaff by making artificial snow from 100 percent reclaimed sewage water. These are sacred to 13 surrounding tribes. He asked friends and activists what their thoughts were about what's happening to the peaks. Those thoughts were
written on their faces. Jetsonorama photographed them and
the installation went up in Flagstaff last year. Unfortunately, the
latest ruling allows Snowbowl to continue using sewage water, something not done anywhere else in the world. But the battle isn't over.
Jetsonorama's Code Talker installation
on a roadside jewelry kiosk
Before Jetsonorama hit the street scene, one of his hobbies was photography. Dinétah (Navajoland) made a lovely subject. Today for a big installation he enlarges his photos in 2-foot by 2-foot sections, trims them, makes his own wheat paste using
Bluebird Flour — a staple on the rez for making fry bread — and leaves these love notes around the rez, often where they can be seen from the highways. One of his first installations was on one of the numerous and often abandoned roadside kiosks of Navajo jewelry vendors. He noticed after his installation of the Code Talkers on one kiosk that the owners were making repairs. He stopped to find out why, and the owners said that many more tourists were attracted by the murals and business had picked up. He was asked to install more art on the other walls attracting traffic in the opposite direction.
The dialogue between Yote and Jetsonorama began here
when Yote anonymously added his woodblock coyote
to Jetsonorama's work.
Thus,
The Painted Desert Project was born. Launched a few weeks ago, a collaboration with
Yote, another street artist, the project aims to invite their favorite street artists to the rez and show it some love. Painting the numerous roadside kiosks — which are usually barren plywood — is the main goal.
Jetsonorama said: "The purpose of the project is three-fold. It will increase interactions between travelers and the local population hopefully fostering dialogue and challenging negative stereotypes. The second objective is to involve youth from the local communities in mural making workshops and thirdly, we'll have incredible art along the roadside in northern Arizona."
The project is already moving fast and the following artists are on board for personal apperances: Breeze, Gaia, Over Under, Doodles, Chris Stain and Caledonia. If this ambitious tour de force project moves you, visit this link and you'll see how you can help.
I cannot wait for my next road trip through the rez!
•••
Coincidentally: Aaron Huey (amazing new project from him in the works, btw) told me I needed to connect with Jetsonorama. My mother was born at Inscription House where this good doctor is practicing. He knows all my relatives who live in nearby Shonto and Kaibeto. What a delight to see street art, relating to my heritage, on the vast Navajo rez. I urge you to click on the links above to see more of the artists' work. The videos are simply wonderful.
Below the FryBread thingey are two wonderful videos of Jetsonorama's installations:
The text underneath each video belongs to Jetsonorama.
hank y thelma en la casa de hugo hernandez (04.24.10)
i finally pasted casa de hugo hernandez. i've been thinking about this house for weeks. as much as anything, i wanted to see if i could do a big pasting alone. my friend linda came along. i shared with her that i wanted to see if i could do this big a piece by myself; so she just hung out and took pictures. i did it! hank is 16 feet; thelma is 15.
the day was perfect - just a little breeze and not too hot. the sky was so, so blue - almost azure like a fall sky. on the horizon, disrupting the intense blue, i'd look south periodically to see the snow-covered san francisco peaks. it was sheer beauty and i drew inspiration from that.
a couple people from the community stopped by as i was pasting. one couple who run a roadside stand near tuba city gave me turquoise and silvery jewelry as a way of saying thanks.
it was a good day.
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Music: Lunar Drive —All Eyes Were Stones
gray mountain 10 12 09 (new + improved) featuring Yote:
"no reservation required crew" sends love and thanks to the local people who stopped by over the weekend and shared with us their appreciation of the work. thanks for the support, the coffee and the encouragement. thanks also to dj rey love and lunar drive for the use of the song "here at black mesa, arizona." |
Music: Lunar Drive —Right Here in Black Mesa, Arizona
Indians have often been referred to as the "Vanishing Americans." But we are still here, entangled each in his or her unique way with modern America, blended into the dominant culture or not, full-blood or not, on the reservation or not, and living lives much like the lives of other Americans, but with differences related to our history on this continent, our diverse cultures and religions, and our special legal status. To most other Americans, we are invisible, or only perceived in the most stereotyped fashion.