Dimensions reflect entire work.

Provenance:  Acquired from LewAllen Contemporary, Santa Fe, New Mexico.

On "Navajo Lingo"

My admirable attempt to take a Navajo Language course at Phoenix College in the Spring of 2002 left me with one remaining handout that inspired "Navajo Lingo". I was looking forward to the class because it was going to be a triumphant step toward some sense of cultural affirmation. I was never taught how to speak Navajo growing up. For that matter, I was never taught Laguna, French, Welsh, Hungarian, German, or any other supposed blood line that I am connected to. But, Navajo was the closest language that was present in my everyday life besides English.

The lone paper that still remains, 'An illustrated Alphabet of the Language of the Navajo Indians by Steve Watkins,' struck me as odd and funny as the camel, house trailer, and ointment are used as the connecting illustrations to the letters within the word. There is no pictorial simplicity as A is for Apple.

In the Painting "Navajo Lingo", the visual language and the written/spoken language are interchangeable. It should be understood that one panel may be more literal than another and that word play within the overall piece is intentional. The images are essentially the translation between two cultures. It is an attempt at asking new questions of traditional values and aesthetics in terms of western art and at the same time push past the notions of ethnicity and cultural boundaries. Each one of the forty eight paintings is created from a personalized mythology. It is a multidimensional self portrait. It is my Americana.

- Steven Yazzie