‘Picture this!’
“Jonah and the Whale,” Sadie Begay (Navajo), 1995. Begay employs x-ray views in two instances in the story—one shows Jonah napping in the cabin cruiser and the other shows Jonah in the belly of the whale.
PHOENIX, AZ—“Picture this!” It’s a fitting name for a fascinating visual tale as well as a new Heard Museum exhibit of weavings that tell stories, Picture This! Navajo Pictorial Textiles, which opened Saturday, February 16 and will be on display through September 2, 2013.
The exhibit’s weavings tell stories that date to when dinosaurs were on Earth, even though the oldest of those to be displayed were created in the 19th century, according to Dr. Ann Marshall, the museum’s vice president for curation and education.
Textiles by the family of Louise Y. Nez (Navajo), one of the leading families of Navajo pictorial weavers, is featured in this exhibit. Family members were also part of a special demonstration of the art of pictorial weaving at the 55th Annual Heard Museum Guild Indian Fair & Market, March 2-3, 2013.
Textiles by Nez and by her daughters Florence Nez Riggs, LaVerne Nez Greyeyes and Jane Hyde, are displayed. Florence Riggs was chosen as the Fair’s signature artist.
Visitors to the Heard Museum North Scottsdale can view another of Riggs’ textiles, a circus scene, in the ongoing exhibit Choices and Change. It was woven in 1993 at the request of trader Cindy Foutz.
Also in the Picture This! exhibit are examples from the gift of several Navajo weavings donated to the Heard in memory of Dr. Doren Indritz of Scottsdale.
