Self Surrender (#1242), Emmi Whitehorse (born 1957)

Emmi Whitehorse was born in Crownpoint, New Mexico and attended a government boarding school for Navajo girls. She earned a B.A. in painting and an M.A. in printmaking from the University of New Mexico and lives and works in Santa Fe.

Whitehorse says the colors of her paintings come from the colors her grandmother used in her weavings. In earlier works she used images and forms derived from her family experiences, but gradually these forms became more abstract and more suggestive of landscapes. By the time this painting was completed, her work was completely abstract.