Paintings of Time and Place

SOLD “The Long Walk of the Navajos to Bosque Redondo,” Oil on Canvas. Sold by Jackies Trading Post in Taos, New Mexico. Thank you, Bill and Joy.

This painting was inspired by a tragic occurrence in Navajo and US
history. In 1864 the US government decided to place the Navajos with Mescalero Apache on a reservation at Bosque Redondo in east central New Mexico. Kit Carson destroyed sheep and rounded up about 8000 Navajos for this move. The Navajos were herded on an 18 day, 300 mile walk from Arizona to New Mexico. What was originally conceived as a reservation at Bosque Redondo soon became a prison. A sad chapter in both Navajo and US government history. After four years the government returned the Navajo to their homeland.

Navajo Style Pillow Front

 

Just completed weaving a new front for an 18" pillow.  Woven using tapestry techniques learned from a woman from the Navajo reservation, this design has a look of both ethnic and contemporary styling.  I do not copy designs from the Navajo, but use the technique I learned from a Navajo woman to weave the design on my AVL horizontal loom.  I also have a project in process on a small vertical Navajo loom which utilizes the Navajo warping technique, continual warp which, when removed, is completed on all four sides with no fringe to be completed.

Ethnic Modern,  Wool and wool/mohair on all wool warp, $125 USD for completed pillow with button back.

Copyright 2015 Charlotte Shroyer

 

 

 

Navajo Style Pillows Part of Lone Tree Gallery Display, Cowboy Poetry Fest, Genoa, Nevada

Check out my pillows on display during the Cowboy Poetry Fest in downtown Genoa, Nevada.   The Lone Tree Gallery from Minden is sponsoring a booth to be open during the festival.   Look for them.  Wish I were there for the festival--I miss the cowboys, white faced herefords in the grassy ranchlands, and the beauty of the Sierras, but most of all, my friends.

Geometry 2, 20" inch pillow of wool/mohair with leather trim, button back, $110 USD

 

SOLD

 

In Love with Navajo Weaving Again--One of my Life's Passions

It has been almost 25 years since I first felt the wool in my fingers as they pushed it through the warp on a Navajo loom.  Little did I know at that time how much Navajo weaving would influence my life in so many different ways--spiritual, artistic, and economical as well as leading me to another connection with the world. 

From time to time I find myself pursuing other artistic ventures, such as oil painting diverse peoples, the places where they live and have lived, and abstract images that in some way, at least in my mind, are related to the main themes of my paintings.  Then, all of a sudden, Navajo weaving arises once again, almost as the phoenix out of the depths of my mind.  I have to weave again.

This happened last year when I wove pillows for the New Mexico Foundation which manages the gift shops of New Mexico museums on the plaza in Santa Fe.  Once again, I have found myself weaving and creating pillows for another event, Cowboy Poetry in Genoa, Nevada.

And so it seems for whatever reason I must continue to weave to keep the fire alive and the passion burning.

 

Hopi Inspiration, 18" pillow with cowhide panels and handwoven center of green and sage yarns, button back

Navajo Style Handwoven pillow

Another beautiful handwoven pillow woven in the Navajo tapestry technique.  Only $110.00 USD plus $10 shipping and handling.

Navajo style woven pillow, Geometry 2

Another pillow in the Geometry 2 series.  Same pillow, different colors.

Colors can be customized to fit your decor.

Geometry 2, Handwoven in wool and/or wool/mohair, 20" X 20", button back, $110 USD plus $10 shipping and handling

Navajo Style Handwoven Pillow--Geometry 2

Never say never.  Never thought I would be weaving pillows for retail again, but......that's the way life goes.  When one has a spiritual connection with a culture and its art, magic happens and once again the connection strengthens.  So it is with the ways of the Navajo. 

I feel that connection when I weave and once again I have been weaving, this time for the Museum gift shops in Santa Fe, especially for the new Historic Museum on the historic Santa Fe Plaza.

Navajo style handwovenpillow with leather side panels. Button back. Wool and/or wool/mohair. 20" X 20"

$110.00 USD plus $10 shipping and handling

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Navajo Weaving Again

Over 20 years ago I learned Navajo weaving from a Navajo woman who traveled from her Arizona reservation to teach a group of Anglos the ins and outs of her beautiful art.  It was not easy.  I struggled with setting up the warp, making the turns neat and straight, learning how to make the diamond, etc.  More than once an end popped out where it shouldn't.  I forgot to do the Navajo selvedge at the turns; my design was askew,  but I continued to work at this wonderful art with a passion that has endured for all these years.  I still feel the spirit of centuries in the yarn as it passes through my fingers and into the warp.  It is still a passion and a part of my soul.

Once again I have returned to Navajo weaving as a part of the things that I do in the art world.  It takes me to another place and space somewhere in my fingers, my mind, and someplace beyond.  It is a connection with another culture and with the people of that culture--a place and space to be treasured.