BackNavajo Yucca Night Basket - Elsie Holiday (#287)
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Navajo Baskets
Yucca Night
23"
Yucca is one of those plants that is strikingly attractive and useful as well. The plant seems to help make the desert a much more interesting and breathtakingly beautiful place. The strong v-shaped, pointedly sharp leaves have been used as weapons, and because of its fibrous nature, can be stripped and braided into a strong twine. Because of the cleansing properties of the root, it can be pounded into a sudsy mass and used as a shampoo. Medicine Men often use the shampoo as a cleansing agent in sacred ceremonies. Inspired by the water color art of Serena Supplee, Elsie Holiday has cleverly captured the unique nature of the Yucca plant in its native surroundings through her spectacular weaving ability.
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The Story of Twin Rocks Modern Weavings
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In the late 1800's, Lorenzo Hubbell established his trading post at Ganado, Arizona. Shortly after the post was opened, Hubbell, along with traders like J. B. Moore and C.N. Cotton, became committed to helping improve the economic well-being of their Navajo trading partners through the development and expansion of rug and blanket weaving. As part of his commitment to the Navajo people, Hubbell asked artists Eldridge Ayer Burbank, Bertha Little and others to paint small, simplified blanket patterns. The paintings; created in watercolor, conte crayon and oil, were then hung on the walls of the trading post to encourage local weavers to recreate the designs. In 1993, Moab, Utah, painter Serena Supplee sat on her Navajo rug in the southeastern Utah desert searching for inspiration. It arrived in the form of a revelation directing her to paint a new style of Navajo weaving using bold tones, broad bands of color and motifs influenced by the geography and animal life of the Colorado Plateau. She immediately began painting watercolor images to illustrate her ideas. A three-way partnership between Supplee, Twin Rocks Trading Post and several Navajo weavers has resulted in the latest style of Navajo weaving; Twin Rocks Modern. Lorenzo Hubbell's original inspiration has been reborn through the work of several individuals committed to pushing Navajo rug and blanket weaving to new heights and freeing the artists to create inspiring, innovative art. |
About the artist:
Considered one of the best Navajo basket weavers, Elsie Stone Holiday married into the famed Douglas Mesa family of weavers. Weaving baskets has become almost an addiction for her. "When I go two or three days without weaving I get anxious to get started again," she says. She weaves 12 hours a day, 5 days a week. "Sometimes I think, 'How long can this last?'", she wistfully states, but for now she is content with her art, finding immense satisfaction in creating premier quality baskets.
See full biography | See all items by Elsie HolidayRelated categories:
Navajo Baskets See all items in this categoryRelated legends:
Navajo Basketry
Basketry is a woman's industry, which is also pursued by the nadle (he changes), hermaphrodites, or men skilled in the arts and industries of both men and women. Basketry, however, is not classified with textile fabrics (yistl'o), but with sewing (nalkhad). It is of interest also that, while the basket is in progress, the sewer is untouched and avoided by the members of her family?
More about this legendAdd to Wish List:
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