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The hogan or ‘hooghan’ is a traditional Dine’ (Navajo) dwelling. It means ‘the place home’ and is often used for ceremonial purposes. in the Dine’ creation myth beaver instructed coyote how to build the first hogan for the first man and first woman. It was round and made of mud and logs but later versions added an adobe outer layer over the logs. Welcome to my hogan studio. This is my ‘return to the circle’ –the circle is life. It is in the circle of life that I build my story, my creation myth. Building my round studio initiated a major transformation in what I would become as an artist. Pablo, my Hispanic neighbor constructed it from the very earth itself. The walls inside are made from the dirt behind his adobe home, the same earth with which he made his dwelling. That is the tradition out here. Everything about my hogan space reminds me of the earth. The door faces east and the mountain called El Salto, ‘falling off mountain’. Inside the ceiling is made out of vega logs in a octagonal pattern spiraling upward to create an ‘infinity ceiling’. I hang my paintings on the tiers like an inverted garden terrace. Outside on the stucco walls I painted a cedar orange stripe with the features of the vast mesa echoed at the bottom. The red willows and the hanging gourds are native to this area. I live in the Sangre de Cristo mountains of New Mexico. The scale of the mountains remind me of my human scale –small in comparison to the planet…I like to remember that. I came out to this place to seek solitude, emptiness, silence and darkness–the healing shroud of the stars in the deep night sky.. I left the city of my adulthood but returned to the place of my childhood…the country and the peace that nourishes my soul. I made a full circle and came home. All that I create here is imprinted by the circle in which I paint. It is the eternal womb bringing forth new entities. I am the midwife. I call it the “Applauding Rain Studio”. Rain is scarce here and should be applauded. But more than that I applaud life, nature and the earth in its infinite creativity. It is the only teacher we know. The Dine’ called it the Blessing Way. |
