Self Surrender (#1242), Emmi Whitehorse

The artist is Emmi Whitehorse, born 1957, in Crownpoint, New Mexico. The title of this work is Self Surrender, number 1242, created 1999. This work is made with oil and pastel on paper on canvas.

Self-Surrender is an abstract drawing on a reddish-orange background. It is about three and a half feet tall and four and a half feet wide, and is hung on a metal rack with other two-dimensional works of art that divides the center of the gallery. The reddish-orange of the background fades and darkens across the canvas, almost white in the upper right corner and a dark burgundy at the middle left edge. Over this background, black and grey lines and curls, tally marks, and hillocks are drawn in layers without a discernable order. In the middle left half, a dark circle is grouped near two smaller black ovals. Near the bottom left corner, there is a five-inch-long vertical yellow line. Near the bottom right corner, there is a small, solid blue oval and a solid orange oval. Above them is a larger yellow and orange oblong shape. The colors and drawings are all very smooth and blended.

Emmi Whitehorse attended a government boarding school for Navajo girls. She earned a B.A. in painting and a 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.

Native American artist Emmi Whitehorse writes about her work: “I have chosen to focus on nature, on landscape. My paintings tell the story of knowing land over time—of being completely, micro-cosmically within a place. I am defining a particular space, describing a particular place. They are purposefully meditative and mean to be seen slowly. The intricate language of symbols refer to specific plants, people, and experiences." (Tap the Web icon to hear Whitehorse talk about her work). Take a few moments to look carefully at Whitehorse’s work. How do you see the landscape emerge?