As an abstract artist, my inspirations come mostly from the Navajo female weavers in my family. My mother, Alice Katoney, has been a weaver all her life. Growing up on the Navajo Reservation near Hardrock, Arizona, I was influenced by my mother, aunts and grandmother. Now several of my nieces are rug weavers as well. I chose to express myself in two dimensional abstract media.
My oil paintings are inspired and motivated by works of David Johns, an abstract painter who lead me to use my own background for material rather than the European ideas from my training. The techniques I have used in oils are mostly what I learned of the European techniques in my training at college. The ideas come from my roots and cultural background.
Joe Ben Jr., a well known Navajo sand artist, encouraged me to explore not only ideas, but the materials of my ancestors. In sand, I am able to incorporate most of what I grew up with from infancy to my life today. Many colors of sand are found at various sites on the reservation, enabling me to use only natural materials. Getting and using sand is done with prayers and offerings.
The earth is female in Navajo, so the sand gives me, as a female Navajo artist, a great connection from which to develop artistic expression. With pastels, as with the oils, I I feel this gender connection with the materials in my works. It gives me a good feeling to be able to use both materials and ideas from my heritage.
Currently I am using chalk pastels in a modern technique, similar to what I did with oils and natural pigments, deriving ideas from the rock writings of our ancestors and interpreting them through my abstract media.
As my pastels develop, they are a progressive expression of prayer. They incorporate the colors associated with the directions, symbols of prayers and offerings, and the design elements derived from rock writings of our ancestors. Using these, I develop a pictorial image of the prayer activity that I use to balance my life and my relation with surroundings.
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Jeanette Katoney
P. O. Box 817
Hotevilla, AZ 86030
Phone: 928-734-2433 or
928-853-2542
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© 2005 Jeanette Katoney
This page was last updated on Wednesday, 15-Jun-2005 13:33:16 EDT.