15th Annual West Valley Invitational Native American Arts Festival

Navajo fine artist, Frank Fowler Jr. (Photo by R.C. Alexander/Observer)

Navajo fine artist, Frank Fowler Jr. (Photo by R.C. Alexander/Observer)

LITCHFIELD PARK-Temperatures were frigid in the Phoenix Valley during the weekend of Jan. 13 and 14. However, the warmth came from the hardy artisans that displayed and sold their work at the 15th Annual West Valley Invitational Native American Arts Festival held in Litchfield Park. Various Native artisans-some from as far away as Arkansas-came to compete and show their art to willing collectors. Some of the winners in seven categories include:

- Navajo fine artist Frank Fowler Jr., from Kaibeto, who won first place in painting and best of show overall with his horizontal formatted painting of Yeibechi dancers in the moonlit landscape of Navajoland. Bonfires light the night in this painting and the movement of the dancers creates a mysticism that draws viewers into the painting.

- Desert Little Bear, who took first place in stone sculpture for his rock art on basalt incorporating turtle designs. Bear is Pascua Yaqui and Chiricahua Apache and is a professor of anthropology at Arizona State University. He often gives public lectures on perspectives of ancestral rock art as well as discussions on contemporary Native American concepts.

- Navajo sculptor, Alvin John, who took a first place in metal sculpture for his abstracted figures of a Diné man and woman formed out of steel and mounted on a sandstone base. John, also an accomplished painter, lives in El Mirage.

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