Arts

Ever since textile collectors discovered Navajo rugs about 150 years ago, the most desirable have sported the muted colors obtained by natural dyes and the greys and browns of undyed wool, with the possible exception of bright splashes of cochineal red.

To influence the children who encircled him on Saturday morning to ask him more questions about his na’ashó’ii dich’ízhii painting and his work, Daniel Josley smeared his face with blue paint as though it were war paint.

In 1997 contemporary Diné painter Peterson Yazzie won the high school art contest held by Northland Pioneer College, which earned him a scholarship to the school and eventually led him to become a teacher. Now the two-dimensional art instructor and faculty member helps run the same annual art competition at the college.