By Ursula Maxwell-Lewis
VANCOUVER, BC: The Bill Reid Gallery of Northwest Coast Art made a perfect backdrop for Navajo artists visiting Vancouver with Arizona Office of Tourism partners in August.
On the gallery’s sunny outdoor patio, artists Baje Whitethorne, Sr., Elizabeth Whitethorne-Benally and Bahe Whitethorne, Jr. shared note only their art, but their paints. With a blank canvas perched on an easel in the shade, and oil paints and brushes arrayed nearby, guests were encouraged add random brush strokes in their choice of colours to the blank canvas.
Initially hesitant, the novices grew bolder – circles, strident stripes, blends, movement here, a blaze of colour there.
Gradually, under the watchful eyes of the experts, an image began to emerge -the one you noticed on the TS cover.
Baje is a grandfather who was influenced by his Navajo grandfather.
“Pay attention to little things,” his family elder once advised. “Listen. Think. Pay attention to the balance of life and colour.” As an award-winning artist, the advice has service him well, prompting him to write an illustrated children’s book based on a day with his grandfather.
It occurred to me that painting, like life, seems to happen more by instinct rather than design. Long forgotten memory scraps woven into pictures, memoirs, or even simply a chat with a child, sibling or friend, could last longer than we might guess.
Bill Reid, the gallery namesake, was a Haida artist. As with the Navajo, tradition and nature, became treasured guides.
Beyond the sunny, tree-lined makeshift patio studio, traffic rumbled, honked, ebbed and flowed. Cel phones jangled. Life went on.
Facing the open door, an impressive Bill Reid totem pole dominated the north end of the main gallery interior. Unable to interpret the tales (truths?) hammered into the West Coast wood, I wondered if the ancient spirits of the legendary Haida and Navajo were smiling and nodding. Behind me a face had emerged on the canvas. The random brushstrokes of assorted Pacific Northwest residents had, within an hour, become inextricably blended into a work of art by desert Navajo visitors.
So, apart from an art lesson,what else did I learn about Arizona? Here are a few fun facts that might be new to you Snowbirds.
In February 12, 1912, President William Howard Taft was prepared to proclaim Arizona a state, but it was Lincoln’s birthday. The next day, the 13th, was considered bad luck. The deed was finally done on February 14 – which is why Arizona became known as the Valentine State.
Clark Gable and Carole Lombard, stars of Hollywood’s Golden Age, were married in Kingman, Arizona on March 18, 1939.
If four 13,000-foot skyscrapers were piled on top on each other, they still wouldn’t reach the top of the Grand Canyon.
London Bridge really didn’t fall down. It was sold, dismantled stone by stone, shipped from the U.K to the U.S, and now attracts tourists to Lake Havasu City.
Wyatt Earp was neither the town marshal nor the sheriff in Tombstone at the time for the shootout at the O.K Corral. His brother, Virgil, was town marshal.
The Sonoran Desert is the most biologically diverse desert in North America.
The Lost Dutchman, Jacob Waltz – the alleged owner of the yet to be discovered Lost Dutchman Gold Mine in Superstition Mountain – was a German.
Lastly, you’ll find the worlds best preserved meteor crater near Winslow, and – roadrunners are real. Those famous zany characters have been clocked 17 mph.
To learn more about Arizona go two www.visitarizona.com