James Ayers Native American Indian art - Navajo weavers honored in painting and sculpture at trading post exhibit from June 18 – August 21, 2011

Navajo weavers honored in painting and sculpture at trading post exhibit from June 18 – August 21, 2011

20% of proceeds from art sale to fund weaving classes for Navajo youth

[Toadlena Trading Post, May 25, 2011] Wopila Artist Guild announces Honoring Weavers with Canvas and Bronze, a new art show exhibit opening at the historic Toadlena Trading Post on the Navajo reservation.

This show is comprised of paintings by James Ayers and sculpture by Craig Bergsgaard, award-winning artists who wanted to recognize the craftsmanship of these weaving artisans.

Partnering together, Ayers and Bergsgaard created the Wopila Artist Guild, an artist organization founded to help sustain traditional art forms by providing support and funds for Native American youth art education.

Twenty percent of the proceeds from the sale of the works by Ayers and Bergsgaard will be donated by the Wopila Artist Guild to the Toadlena Young Weaver’s Project, a non-profit fund administered by the Wheelwright Museum of the American Indian in Santa Fe.

Imagine how you would feel to learn that a quiet grandmother is really an art virtuoso whose work is collected across the globe—yet few in the mainstream art industry know she exists.

Now imagine that there is an entire enclave of master artists: sisters, daughters, cousins—all creating work recognized by collectors but garnering little, if any, recognition for themselves.

You now have a picture of the Navajo weavers of the historic Toadlena Trading Post, a creative enclave which is right in your backyard.

Honoring Weavers with Canvas and Bronze, a new art exhibit debuting in June of 2011, is intended to initiate a long-overdue round of applause from the traditional fine art world for the Navajo people who create the celebrated weavings called /Two Grey Hills textiles.

The historic Toadlena Trading Post weavers are known for their use of complex geometric visuals in subtle natural tones, with the best weavers making artworks to rival traditional masters in terms of balance, proportion, and contrast.

Craig Bergsgaard, sculptor and Wopila Artist Guild co-founder , agrees.

The works will be unveiled to the Navajo community of the area at the bi-annual party held at Toadlena on June 18, 2011. The public is invited to attend this community celebration, which typically attracts around 1,000 people.

The entire show will be on display at the Historic Toadlena Trading Post Weaving Museum through August 21, 2011.

Twenty percent of the proceeds from all six pieces, three paintings and the first piece in the edition of each sculpture, will be donated to the Toadlena Young Weaver’s Project, a non-profit fund administered by the Wheelwright Museum of the American Indian in Santa Fe.

Wopila’s goal is to raise the funds to help the weavers as soon as possible. These pieces will be unveiled for the weaving community of Toadlena at trading post’s bi-annual fiesta on June 18, 2011 and will be on exhibit through August 21, 2011. The public is encouraged to attend the festivities.

The works are available for presale, now, before the show begins. Buyers of the work will be recognized by name at the party.

To learn more

Please contact Wopila coordinator, Amy Steeby at 602-510-3662 or by email: Wopila contact, or visit the Wopila Artist Guild website at www.wopilaguild.org.

###

About Craig Bergsgaard

Craig Bergsgaard is fascinated with America’s West and seeks to explores the country’s complicated and conflicted past by sculpting the people who experienced it first hand.

Craig was an artist long before he ever described himself that way. After serving seven years in the Air Force, Craig spent 25 years in construction, before realizing his after-work pastimes were more fulfilling than his profession.

Craig waywardly wore his path into the art world, from three-dimensional sewing to furniture making to wood carving. At the suggestion of an art teacher friend, Craig made his first foray into sculpting, a natural fit for the tactile artist.

“I always had this drive to work with my hands and make something that was tangible,” Craig says. “Once you realize that this phenomenon is called the creative drive, it’s a whole new perspective.”

After taking the leap to become a full-time sculptor in 2004, Craig and his wife traveled through Italy to see the masters’ works, which took Craig’s art to an entirely new level of authenticity and detail.

“Once you realize you’re an artist, the ceiling is shattered,” Craig says. “Once you learn you can evoke emotion in a viewer, all bets are off. It’s a new day.” Extensive research and attention to subtleties allow Craig to tell emotive stories with his work.

Craig’s art aims to unearth the complexities and incongruities of history, striving to spur discussion about events that have been pushed to the recesses of our minds.

“There’s a lot of ugly stories to be told, and if I can change a couple people’s attitudes and if I can exorcise my emotions, then I’m doing my job,” Craig says.

When Craig visited the site of the 1864 Sand Creek Massacre, he had a burning desire to make an artistic comment about the tragedy – an internal struggle that came to fruition in his piece Memorare, Sand Creek 1864 that was installed in The Booth Western Art Museum’s permanent collection in 2010,

Most recently, Craig visited the historic Toadlena Trading Post on the Navajo reservation in New Mexico to meet the Master Weavers and glean inspiration and feedback for his current works-in-progress celebrating them and their traditions.

Craig, a native Minnesotan, lives in Windsor, Colorado, with his wife JoAnn. He also maintains a studio presence in Scottsdale from January through March during the Arizona Fine Art Expo.

Life-size public installations of Craig’s work can be found in Fountain Hills, Ariz.; Castle Rock, Colo.; Spring Grove, Minn.; and his Memorare, Sand Creek 1864 is on display at The Booth Western Art Museum in Cartersville, Georgia.

About James Ayers

James understands the inevitability of change and seeks to honor the customs and beauty of traditional cultures through his oil paintings.

James’s paintings are the result of years of research combined with personal exploration and observation. James has studied details of the cultures he portrays with an anthropologist’s eye, and marries his understanding of the struggles of modern Native cultures with his knowledge of their artifacts and customs, in creating his canvases.

Shortly after graduating from the Rhode Island School of Design in 1991, James began a pattern of traveling, living, and working with indigenous peoples worldwide that continues to the present day.

James has

• Traveled on foot with the semi-nomadic Samburu and Turkana people in Africa’s Great Rift Valley
• Explored Native American reservations from Maine to Arizona, living with the Iroquois in the Northeast, the Sioux in the Great Plains, and the Hopi in the Southwest
• Invited to the historic Toadlena Trading Post on the Navajo reservation in northwest New Mexico to meet the weavers and the sheepherders still living traditional lifeways
• Sought first-hand experiences with numerous tribal cultures, and with each relationship, he acquired insights that help him understand the historical material he incorporates into his art

Although the subjects in his works are fictionalized accounts rather than literal representations, every facet of James’ paintings attempts to be historically correct — from the style of a man’s plaited hair to the he weapons used and even the motifs which decorate his tipis, clothing, and shields.

James Ayers is represented by the Legacy Gallery of Scottsdale, Arizona and Jackson, Wyoming and the Hayden Hays Gallery of Colorado Springs. His paintings are included in museums and collections throughout the United States.