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| The Elders Speak, Oil on Board, 34" x 68" |
Well, I watched this one leave the studio today bound for its new home in Monument Valley. It will join "Evening Homework" which has already been hung. The paintings hang on the North and South walls of the central concourse of the new elementary school, where students enter and pass through each day. Because Navajo culture connects each sacred direction (East, South, West, and North) with a different phase of life (Childhood, Adolescence, Adulthood, and Old Age) I worked with students and Elders in the tribe to create these two images celebrating the phases of life that correspond to the directions where the paintings are displayed. “Evening Homework” (hung on the South wall of the concourse) celebrates Education in Adolescence. This one, “The Elders Speak” (hung on the North Wall), showcases the Elders educating the rising generation through storytelling.
