Carving a narrative
Greyshoes’ route to sculpting was more epiphany than gradual discovery
The stones flow with the grace of pueblo dancers praying for the rain to green the harvest.
The handiwork of a sculptor named Greyshoes, the folds and curves bloom into the signs and symbols of sun-warmed dancers swaying in stone.
Greyshoes is the nom de plume of the multiple blue ribbon award-winning sculptor Upton Ethelbah Jr.
Of White Mountain Apache and Santa Clara Pueblo lineage, he coaxes stories from stone in a North Valley studio in Albuquerque’s bosque.
Greyshoes is one of about 1,000 artists who juried into this summer’s nowshuttered Santa Fe Indian Market.
His route to chipping figures from stone was more epiphany than gradual discovery. He spent the bulk of his career as a director of student living for the Santa Fe Indian School before retiring at 55 in 1998.
“I had never done anything with art in my life,” he said.
Inspired by a friend, he took a stone carving class at the Poeh Arts Center and discovered he was a natural. Today he works in exotic and domestic marble, limestone, alabaster and onyx. He casts his favorites in bronze burnished in patinas in a rainbow of colors, patterns and textures.
“I loved working in stone,” he said. “It was physical. It was the use of major kinds of tools with major rpms with risk and danger. And I found out I was good at it.
“I always compare it a lot to football,” he continued. “You have to be very strong and it takes a certain amount of finesse.”
His figures emerge from both sides of his indigenous roots. He carves Apache crown dancers, pueblo corn, deer, elk, antelope and buffalo dancers, even pan-American Matachines.
He usually begins with a sketch, sometimes on a napkin, other times on a tablet. He enlarges the drawing on a copy machine, then transfers it to a cardboard template
“Apache Sunrise Ceremony” took first place in its category at the 2015 Santa Fe Indian Market. Greyshoes drew his inspiration from the four-day Apache comingof-age ceremony for young girls. It stands 4 feet high and weighs 400 pounds. He drew it on a tablet while he watched “Game of Thrones.”
Five crown dancers in fan-shaped headgear envelop a female figure, her palms upright toward the sun. Greyshoes carved it from Carrara marble, “the stone Michelangelo used,” he said proudly.
“Their purpose is to bless the dance and to protect the young girls,” he said. “In the morning, as the sun comes up, she’s in her buckskin dress with a shell on her forehead. She sits on a blanket and bobs back and forth and the sun warms her face and it warms her palms.”
Cast in bronze, “The Blessing” depicts a female corn dancer at Santa Clara.
“As we dance, there’s two lines,” Greyshoes explained, “We have boygirl, boy-girl. I danced there nearly 40 years. You have this woman in front of you. The last dance is the blessing with corn in each hand. Her hands move to the left to bless people; they move to the right to bless people. These blessings go around the whole world.
“I was singing the corn dance songs while I was working. It was so beautiful.”
He carved the original in alabaster; it took a first at Santa Fe “in about 2014,” he said.
His bronze “Shalako” sits in front of Santa Fe’s Manitou Gallery on Canyon Road.
The figure comes from Zuni Pueblo. The dancers represent the couriers of the pueblo rain deities.
“The big event comes when the Shalakos come,” Greyshoes said. “They’re like 8 feet tall; they’re like puppets or marionettes. They’re hollow and they’re light and there’s a man inside. They rock back and forth as they come to the village and they bless the homes.”
He carved the original from Portuguese marble. The bronze is 6 feet tall.
“It’s got a beak,” he added. “That beak is attached to a rope that the man will pull; it makes noise and the people know their home is being blessed.”
He carved “Blue Corn” from soapstone before casting the figure in bronze.
“She represents one of the corn dancers at Santa Clara,” he said, “with the tablitas and her sun face.”
Greyshoes once travelled the native market circuit, from Santa Fe to Phoenix, Los Angeles, Indianapolis and Washington, D.C. Today he limits himself to Santa Fe shows.
He named his website greyshoes.com to honor his grandfather’s Apache name. In the late 1800s, a census taker bungled the man’s native name, documenting it as “Ethelbah.” Greyshoes is the English translation of the original Apache.
Blessed with a federal pension, the artist isn’t worried about losing his income to the pandemic.
“As an artist, I work independently anyway,” he said. “If I don’t make a sale, I still have income coming in. All you can do is do the best that you can and put it out there.”