2240 West Alameda #7 / Santa Fe, New Mexico 87507 / 505.982.4561 / info@johnfarnsworth.com
KACHINA PAINTINGS (currently available)
WAKAS (COW KACHINA)
oil on linen
48 x 72"
USD $30,000
These Kachina Watercolors are currently available:
Watercolor
9 x 12 inches
$800
9 X 12 inches
$800
(COAL KACHINAS)
9 x 12 inches
$800
Acrylic on Canvas
36" x 48"
USD $8500
The Shalako Kachina is a favorite of mine, and I have painted it in many variations and in different media. Shalako is the Kachina that appears every winter in Zuñi and blesses all of the new home construction in the village. The dancers appear in pairs, and are enormous (up to twelve feet tall), and have long, snapping, clacking beaks. They are accompanied by Sipikne Kachinam representing the four directions, by Fire Kachina and by a chorus of Mudheads.
The new homes are decorated with Navajo Rugs, Pendleton Blankets, and Russian shawls. Even the mounted heads of deer are festooned in fine inlaid jewelry of silver and turquoise.
One of the most beautiful and awe inspiring of the Kachina Ceremonies I have been privileged to attend, Shalako is no longer open to outsiders.
While they are no longer available, the following Kachina images are here for your enjoyment, and may serve as inspiration for works you might like to commission.
Lakon Mana
Rooster Kachina
Mudhead Kachina
Sio Shalako Kachina 1
Velvet Shirt Kachina
Sio Shalako Kachina 2
John made a series of very small oil pastel Kachina Studies in a spiral bound photo album. Many people, when they see the studies, want to buy them. But John refuses to part with them. When he made an enlargement of the Mudhead sketch to hang in his studio, I realized what a great collection of affordable prints the series would make.
I could see them as an exciting design accent, hanging as a group, say, along an entryway, or at the end of a hall. They would enliven the walls of a family room or a child's room or kitchen.
We considered making an expensive, limited edition, boxed set, but decided that it would be better to make a collection that could be seen and enjoyed by many more people, and that would exemplify our over-
Priced at $150 each, framed. Three for $400, or all nine for $950. Size: 12.5 x 10. Call Thea Swengel, at 505 982-
SPECIAL OFFER:
Buy the full set and I'll throw in this Apache Mountain Spirit Mask study:
Mountain Lion Kachina
Korosto Kachina
Tihu Kachina
(Apache Mountain Spirit)
KACHINAS (sold or not available)
Oil on linen
9” x 12”
Sold
oil on linen
9 x 12 inches
Sold
Oil on Belgian Linen on Birch Panel
10” X 14”
Sold
ZUNI SHALAKO Home Blesser
9 x 12 inches
Watercolor
Collection of Eric Weber and Jay
Olson
KACHIN MANA Female Kachina
9 x 12 inches
Watercolor
Collection of Eric Weber and Jay
Olson
GHAN MASK Apache Mountain Spirit Dancer
Watercolor
30 x 22 inches
MISSING: Lost or stolen
from our Taos Gallery. Reward.
ART YOU CAN LIVE WITH
Oil on linen
9 x 12 inches
USD $1500
30 x 24 inches
Oil on linen
USD $8400
SIP-
24 x 30 inches
Oil on linen
USD $6400 framed
NA-
9 x 12 inches
Oil on Linen on Panel
USD $1500
SIO HEMIS (Appears in Niman Ceremony)
16 x 20 inches
Oil on linen on panel
USD $3000
framed
MASAU’U Earth God, Germ God
16 x 20 inches
Oil on Linen on panel
USD $3000 framed
TUNGWUP KACHINA Mong or Chief Kachina accompanies Crow Mother Kachina
12 x 16 inches
Oil
on Linen on panel
USD $1900
HONAN Badger Kachina
8 x 10 inches
Oil on Linen on panel
USD $950 framed
(KWEO, WOLF KACHINA)
Oil on Canvas
24" x 24"
USD $3200
Acrylic on Canvas
25 1/2" x 24 3/4"
USD $3200
Fowler Museum
Watercolor
22" x 15"
USD $1800 Framed
I was born in Williams, Arizona and grew up in Northern Arizona, in the shadow of the Navajo and Hopi Reservations.
At the age of nine, I visited Taos, my mother’s birthplace. In the galleries of Taos, I realized that I would be an artist.
Following High School, I studied independently, and painted in my spare time while working at jobs that included managing a small private museum and Indian shop, working as a trader on the Navajo Reservation, and as Preparator at the Museum of Northern Arizona, under Kachina expert and author Barton Wright.
In 1967, I began camping and traveling among the Navajo and Pueblos at every opportunity; sketching, painting, and attending ceremonials
NIMAN
Oil on Masonite panel
48" X 48"
Sold
Collection: Terry Thomas
In 1968, I decided to devote myself to painting full-
Then, in 1977, I quit painting Indian subjects. I was feeling burned out; as though
I’d been run over by the band-
After a couple of years, however, the Kachinas found their way back into my consciousness. While I now paint many different subjects, ranging from animals to people, from still life to landscape, Kachinas remain an important part of my work.
Kachinas, like the Mexican Masks that I also paint, interest me not as artifacts; I've seen them painted that way, and, somehow, always felt the point has been missed. They are so much more than that. When one puts on a mask, one takes on a different identity. Becomes someone or something else. It is primarily this sense of life, of otherness, of enhanced possibilities, I believe, that attracts me. There are many other reasons, such as these from a piece I wrote for the UCLA Fowler Museum exhibition catalog KATSINA by Zena Pearlstone:
they are there.
they are beautiful.
they are a part of me.
they are timeless and enduring.
they
are intriguing and mysterious.
they are powerful and evocative and alive.
they are
carved and textured and painted and aged.
they are feathered and masked and costumed
or unclothed.
they are primordial and sophisticated and speak of other worlds.
they
are carriers of messages and of prayers and bringers of rain and life.
they are subtle
and complex, terrifying and comforting, animal, man, spirit, cloud.
they are hope
and fear, promise and admonition, deliverance and instruction, comfort and song.
they
are of the earth and of the sky and of the air and of the water that flows through
every thing.
The Kachina dolls from which my paintings are usually derived are in the Southwest Museum in Los Angeles, The Heard Museum in Phoenix, the International Folk Art Museum in Santa Fe, or the Millicent Rogers Museum in Taos. Some are from private collections, including my own.
I am sometimes asked whether the Hopi and Zuni people are offended by my painting
the Kachinas. I have never known them to be. I am not trying to replicate or imitate
Kachinas. Like the many non-
Acrylic, oil, oil pastel, pastel, watercolor, drawing, photography, and various print forms have all been used in my Kachina works. In fact, I often depict a given Kachina in more than one medium; sometimes in several:
KIVA
(Koyemsim, or Mudhead Kachinas)
Oil on Masonite panel
48" X 48"
NFS
WHY KACHINAS?
I PAINT KACHINAS BECAUSE:
