PAPER TRAIL
Apache artist records today’s events on vintage ledger pages
Strong native women gallop, gather and hunt across ledger papers with the passion borne of survival.
They collect piñon nuts, track deer and shoot cavalrymen. They raise the children, cook the food and care for their homes across the browning edges of antique paper. The signatures of hotel guests, accountants and hardware sales scroll across the background in ghostly wallpaper.
A direct descendant of the great Apache Chief Cochise, ledger artist Raul Davis creates artwork in tribute to his late mother, grandmother and sister. Davis juried into the Santa Fe Indian Market for the first time this year after five attempts. He also shows his work at Santa Fe’s Windsor Betts Gallery and at the New Millennium Gallery.
“When I found out I was accepted, the first thing I did was I called my Dad,” he said, flashing a Chicklet grin, his former life as a firefighter flickering up his left forearm in a flame tattoo. “I was just happy and thrilled too, because I’ve waited for this moment for a long time.”
Davis’ journey through vintage ledger papers dating as far back as 1898 was circuitous. He learned to draw and paint with watercolors from his late brother Ruben Chino, who also worked in ledger art.
“My brother directed me with the images of horses and rabbits and different animals,” he said.
In the spring, he collected deer and elk antlers to sell to the overseas market for $8 per pound. Later he would carve them into candelabras, furniture and jewelry. After that, he began wood burning. Next he was painting in acrylic, oil and watercolor. Today he works in oil-based colored pencil.
“I do a lot of dedication and tributes to my greatgrandmother Ollie Chino and my late mother Victoria Chino Davis and my late baby sister Robin Ann Davis,” he said. “They were my number one fans and they passed on. My mom and I wished to start a store together because she did beadwork. They all live vicariously through every piece of artwork I make.
“I just smile because I know they’d be so proud.”
He always felt drawn to ledger art because it was the way the Apache people expressed themselves and their way of life.
Drawing on paper evolved from Plains hide painting after the buffalo dwindled and the Europeans imprisoned and forcibly relocated America’s native people.
The form dates to the 19th century, according to the Smithsonian Institution’s Small Documents Gallery. Artists used pencil, ink or watercolor on pages of old ledger or account books.
Davis scours antique shops and the Internet for old ledger papers to use as his canvas.
An untitled work on 1918 ledger paper shows a woman pouring piñon nuts into a basket while a little girl hoists her doll for attention.
Women “raise the kids, you do the work, you thank the creator for the sun and the moon and the stars. Where would I be without my mother doing this?” Davis asked.
The imagery could not be more timely in the #MeToo era.
An unfinished work on a 1913 grocery store ledger shows a woman hovering over a grave.
“So many of our indigenous sisters go missing every day,” Davis said. “They’re being kidnapped, they’re being stolen; they’re being murdered and they’re not finding them. I’m inspired to give our indigenous people a voice.”