SWAIA DISCOVERY AND YOUTH FELLOWSHIPS
Meet the 2019 SWAIA fellows
The SWAIA Discovery Fellowship is awarded every year to artists to assist in “the exploration of their artistic process and push the boundaries of their respective art forms.” To encourage the next generation of Native artists, SWAIA also offers Youth Fellowships. This year’s fellows come from a wide range of artistic disciplines and backgrounds. Discovery Fellow Sallyann Paschall (Cherokee Nation), a painter, printmaker and mixed-media artist, will use her fellowship to learn about and share the art of cold wax painting, a technique related to encaustic painting. “It’s a medium that seems to be very friendly for me, and so what I need to do is nail down the advanced techniques of it,” Paschall said. “The fellowship will be a great way to do that, but … I hate to learn all these things and not share them. So my proposal entails taking an advanced cold wax workshop, then coming back to Santa Fe to make that information available to SWAIA artists. I plan to do two four-day workshops in my studio, and in return for this workshop, each student would teach two other people. I would be available as a mentor for a short period of time after they take the workshop, so I see it as a win-win for everybody.” Diné writer, photographer and model Ungelbah Davila, a 2011 graduate of the Institute of American Indian Arts, will use her Discovery Fellowship for a portrait photography project incorporating oral history. She was inspired by iconic portraits of rock musicians she saw at the Napa Valley Writers Conference in California. Too often, she said, Native artists are photographed only in formal poses and settings. That contributes to a longstanding perception of Native artists as craftspeople consigned to history as opposed to vibrant artists with full lives. “I keep going back to those artists from the ’60s and ’70s who were so iconic because they changed so much and they were so new. We get to see so many different sides of them, like Elvis sleeping on the tour bus, for example, and we’re able to piece together who we think that they were,”
Davila said. “I don’t see that with Native artists. I don’t see that being shot. I don’t see it being reported, documented, and my hope is that showing them the proper respect and attention they deserve as artists will elevate the perception of who they are as humans and artists and the value that they have in the context of the whole world, not just Native art, not just American art, but globally.” Garrett Etsitty (Diné) is a Youth Fellowship recipient. Along with other students from the Chinle Boarding School, he will create a futuristic 60-by-60-inch octagonal painting using Diné ceremonial imagery. “I draw my inspiration from the petroglyphs on the canyon walls, sand paintings and the stories passed down from my elders,” said Etsitty. “I always strive to preserve culture and give back to my community. Collaborating and contributing to our youth at the boarding school gives me an opportunity to fulfill my passions. I want to create a painting with the youth to teach awareness of self, understanding of spiritual relevancy and a relation to the ties of our past, present and future.” Youth Fellow Gracelynn Growingthunder (Nakoda/Dakota/Kiowa/ Muscogee/Seminole) is no stranger to Indian Market. She is a member of a well-known family of artists, including her maternal grandmother, painter Sharron Ahtone Harjo, and her aunt, beadwork and quillwork artist Juanita Growingthunder. Growingthunder is a beadwork artist, photographer and vlogger. Her work can be found on Instagram via @monksaboutart. Asked about her Instagram handle, Growingthunder explained, “When I was younger, I used to climb on people like they were monkey bars, so they called me Monks.” The 9-year-old artist said she’s been going to the market “almost my whole life.” She was overjoyed to find out that she had won a Youth Fellowship, which she will use to purchase equipment and materials. She told her grandmother and aunt right away, and then the third-grader texted her teacher, Miss Davis, who had helped with her application. Growingthunder gave her interview late at night, from New York City,
where she had been to several museums to see Kiowa art and also to a Yankees game. She has more museums in her future: she said visiting the Santa Fe museums and IAIA, along with seeing relatives, is what she most looks forward to about attending Indian Market this year. The 2019 SWAIA Discovery and Youth Fellowships encourage innovation and enable artists to share their work more widely. Look for their creations at this year’s market and beyond.