Kachinas

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Contents © 2000-2004 John Farnsworth unless otherwise noted.
All items offered subject to prior sale.

KACHINAS
JOHN FARNSWORTH

KWEO (Wolf Kachina) Acrylic on Canvas 48 x 60 inches. This painting from my own collection will be available for purchase at the Museum of Fine Arts in Santa Fe, New Mexico event, Collect New Mexico, June 23, 2005. Part of the proceeds will go to the Museum of Fine Arts and part to the Santa Fe Gallery Association. For information, contact Keith Roth, Chairman, Fine Arts Committee, Museum of fine Arts, P.O. Box 2087, Santa Fe, new Mexico, 87504-2087. 505 476-5072, fax 505 476-5076 Click on the thumbnail for an enlarged version.

50
WUPOMO KACHINA (Beak Missing?) watercolor 6x9 inches $600	Seven new Kachina watercolors! Posted November 29, 2004
50
HÉ-É-É KACHINA watercolor 9X12 inches $800		ZUÑI SHALAKO KACHINA watercolor 9x12 inches $800

OWAKTSINAM (COAL KACHINAS) 9x12 inches $800		ZUÑI SIO SHALAKO KACHINA watercolor 9x12 inches $800 SOLD

SIKYA-CHANTAKA (RAIN MESSENGER) watercolor 9x12 inches $800 SOLD		CROW MOTHER KACHINA(WINGLESS) watercolor 9x12 inches $800 SOLD



	SIVU'IKWTAQA Pot Carrier Man mixed dance runner watercolor 9" x 12" SOLD$550			HOCHANI (?) Hootani Katsina Borrowed from Zuni watercolor 9" x 12" SOLD



	HOPI BUTTERFLY MAIDEN (Not a Kachina, but a Social Dance Member) watercolor 6" x 9" SOLD$425			NUVA- KATSIN-MANA Snow Maiden Kachina watercolor 9" x 12" SOLD Collection of Eric Weber and Jay Olson



	SIO AVACHOYA Zuni Corn Kachina Appears at First Mesa for Poyamu watercolor 6" x 9" SOLD			SUSUK HOLI Hooli Katsina watercolor 6" x 9" SOLD



	MASAW KATSINA Masao Spirit of the Earth Gods watercolor 9" x 12" SOLD$550			KWEO Wolf Kachina Carved by Wilson Tawaquaptewa watercolor 9" x 12" SOLD$550



	OGRE KATSINA watercolor 9" x 6" SOLD$425			HOCHANI Hootanikatsina Borrowed from Zuni watercolor 8" x 5" SOLD$400


CLICK ON THE IMAGES BELOW FOR AN ENLARGEMENT AND MORE INFO


WOLFIE	SHALAKO BLUE	HO'OTE	OGRE'S UNCLE

KOYEMSIM	PAHLIK 'MANA	SIO SHALAKO	SNOW MAIDEN

ZUNI VELVET SHIRT	NIGHT WAKAS	HOLI IV 2	HOLI IV
	.	.
WAKAS II	KWAA (EAGLE)	HAKTO II	CHAVEYO
.	.	.	.
WAKAS	SIO CALAKO	STARGAZER	MTN LION

AHOLA	STARGAZER	FROM THE MYTH	SHALAK'MANA

CHUCKLES	HUMMINGBIRD	WHIPPER'S UNCLE	OGRES COMETH
Scroll down to see more Kachinas		.= sold	.=available as Giclée

WHY KACHINAS?

I was born in Williams, Arizona and grew up in Northern Arizona, in the shadow of the Navajo and Hopi Reservations.

At the age of nine, I visited Taos, my mother’s birthplace. In the galleries of Taos, I realized that I would be an artist.

Following High School, I studied independently, and painted in my spare time while working at jobs that included managing a small private museum and Indian shop, working as a trader on the Navajo Reservation, and as Preparator at the Museum of Northern Arizona, under Kachina expert and author Barton Wright.

In 1967, I began camping and traveling among the
Navajo and Pueblos at every opportunity; sketching, painting, and attending ceremonials.

NIMAN

Oil on Masonite panel

48" X 48"

Sold

Collection:

Terry Thomas

In 1968, I decided to devote myself to painting full-time. I continued painting Indian and Indian related subjects for the next ten years, with a year off to paint in Mexico in 1973.

KIVA

(Koyemsim, or Mudheads)

Oil on Masonite

48" X 48"

NFS

Then, in 1977, I quit painting Indian subjects. I was feeling burned out; as though I’d been run over by the band-wagon of Indian-subject popularity. I also stopped attending Kachina dances because of my embarrassment over the crowding and rude, thoughtless behavior of so many non-Indians.

After a couple of years, however, the Kachinas found their way back into my consciousness. While I now paint many different subjects, ranging from animals to people, from still life to landscape, Kachinas remain an important part of my work.

Kachinas, like the Mexican Masks that I also paint, interest me not as artifacts; I've seen them painted that way, and, somehow, always felt the point has been missed. They are so much more than that. When one puts on a mask, one takes on a different identity. Becomes someone or something else. It is primarily this sense of life, of otherness, of enhanced possibilities, I believe, that attracts me. There are many other reasons, such as these from a piece I wrote for the UCLA Fowler Museum exhibition catalog KATSINA by Zena Pearlstone:

I paint Kachinas because:

they are there.
they are beautiful.
they are a part of me.
they are timeless and enduring.
they are intriguing and mysterious.
they are powerful and evocative and alive.
they are carved and textured and painted and aged.
they are feathered and masked and costumed or unclothed.
they are primordial and sophisticated and speak of other worlds.
they are carriers of messages and of prayers and bringers of rain and life.
they are subtle and complex, terrifying and comforting, animal, man, spirit, cloud.
they are hope and fear, promise and admonition, deliverance and instruction, comfort and song.
they are of the earth and of the sky and of the air and of the water that flows through every thing.

The Kachina dolls from which my paintings are usually derived are in the Southwest Museum in Los Angeles, The Heard Museum in Phoenix, the International Folk Art Museum in Santa Fe, or the Millicent Rogers Museum in Taos. Some are from private collections, including my own.

I am sometimes asked whether the Hopi and Zuni people are offended by my painting the Kachinas. I have never known them to be. I am not trying to replicate or imitate Kachinas. Like the many non-Indians who have written about them, I am merely reporting on them, and on their visual beauty by which I have been so moved.

Acrylic, oil, oil pastel, pastel, watercolor, drawing, and various print forms have all been used in my Kachina works.

In fact, I often depict a given Kachina in more than one medium; sometimes in several:

LONGMANA Collection: Wilson and Gai Williams, Phoenix, Arizona

Additional Kachinam...















		More Kachinas coming soon...


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	Contents © 2000 John Farnsworth unless otherwise noted. All items offered subject to prior sale.
This page was last updated by John Farnsworth on Tuesday, April 29, 2008

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