For the holidays, we’re going to approach weekends a bit differently: We going to use both days to bring you work by a single artist, to give you and idea of the depth and breadth of their talents. Some of these pieces will be among the more valuable items in our inventory; others, less so. The one thing they’ll all have in common is beauty and skill within their respective media.
We begin the first weekend in December with Mark Swazo-Hinds. We’ve actually introduced you to Mark before. Here’s what I said about him then:
Mark is from Tesuque Pueblo, the first pueblo north of Santa Fe. The son of famed Tesuque painter Patrick Swazo-Hinds, Mark was actually born in Berkeley, California, but like his father, he returned home to pursue his art. He graduated from the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe in the early 1980s, and has been pursuing his calling (with the occasional detour) ever since.
We’ve carried Mark’s work in our inventory seemingly forever; he and Wings have been art buddies for probably 30 years. He started out carving with small fetishes and figurative pieces, and expanded rapidly into full-size sculptures. He’s now known perhaps as much for his larger-than-life installations as he is for his table-sized sculptures. Mark’s studio is right off the highway north of Santa Fe, on the southwestern edge of Tesuque Pueblo, and at any given time, you can see the larger pieces he has in process from the highway as you drive past.
Over the years, he’s developed avery individualized style, one that seems simple. That impression is deceptive. It is spare, yes, but despite the clean and unadorned lines of the stone, there’s a complexity to it that makes it wholly his. Add to that his trademark style of ornamentation, which we’ll explore in some detail below, and his pieces are immediately recognizeable all over the world.
Mark’s also a tremendously funny guy. Big and imposing, he’s soft-spoken, but always ready with a fish story (both kinds). He’s currently engaged in one of his partial detours, working with some partners in a company that hosts tours of Northern New Mexico, while still carving regularly on the side. He comes up here to hunt and fish, and drops by for a visit every so often. The last time he was here was in May. He told Wings he’d seen the announcement in one of the local papers of Wings’s one-man show at the Jean Cocteau Cinema, dropped everything, and sped into town to check it out. He said that he happened to arrive on an evening when a public event was scheduled, and he got to meet cinema owner (and internationally-known author) George R.R. Martin while there, giving him the opportunity to mention that he was an old friend of the featured artist.
Mark works in multiple media, and his choice of stone varies, in part, with the size and purpose of the piece. He regularly carves in sandstone, both natural and a treated form that works well for industrial-sized outdoor installations that will be subject to the elements. We have some of his smaller carvings made of that material, as well as a large, heavy medicine bear. Some of his preferred motifs are spirit beings — Corn Maidens and various katsinam — and various animals that are regarded by area peoples as possessing inherent powers. Bears are a favorite.
Now, when I say “fish story,” I mean “fish story.” As in, “Hey, I was just up your way; I went fishing up there. I caught one this big [holds hands two and a half feet apart].”
“Really?” Peer into the back of the car. “Where’s the fish?”
With a sheepish look: “I threw it back.”
He’s always good for a joke, quick with a laugh, and a towering talent, both literally and figuratively.
Why “towering?” Well, besides being a big guy himself, as noted above, he works in big, bold styles. I mean BIG. Industrial-sized installations, larger than life — the kind of massive figurative sculpture that you see on the grounds of office parks and resorts.
One thing about outdoor sculpture, especially in places like Northern New Mexico, where the elements are fierce: The medium used must be able to withstand extremes of temperature and weather. It’s not just the intense heat of summer, nor the heavy monsoonal rains and the snow and ice of winter; it’s also the destructive winds that are a hallmark of spring but can buffet the landscape here in any season. When your chosen medium is stone, it takes some extra work to keep it viable.
Mark frequently carves in sandstone, which takes form beautifully beneath tools and glows with the shades of the high-desert local landscape. But the very qualities that make sandstone so well-suited to carving make it less so for open-air installations. And so for such work, Mark turns to a treated form of sandstone. It’s the real deal, but it’s been processed to withstand the elements.
Sometimes, after completing a larger piece, he has enough stone left over to turn into the sort of work that will fit comfortably in a person’s home. We have a few such pieces by him — five, to be exact. We begin with the biggest (and most expensive) today: a truly weighty and substantial piece, as befits a Medicine Bear.
I’ve written about medicine bears in the past — specifically, in the post that first introduced Mark, the one quoted above:
The bear is a popular symbol among many indigenous peoples all over Indian Country. There is a common misconception among the dominant culture that they represent protection or security. [there’s an equally common misconception that there is any one definition or symbolism associated with any given animal or spirit being, jsut as there’s the false notion out there that there is any such thing as “Native American religion” or “Native American spirituality.” There isn’t. Period. There are commonalities in some ways among some peoples, especially those closely related in ethnic and regional terms. But for every discrete group, there are significant differences in spiritual practices and symbols — and sometimes even within groups, as traditions evolved over centuries and millennia at farther reaches of a people’s lands.] At any rate, for some, yes, Bear does represent safety and security and protection. But perhaps more commonly, he represents protection” in a very different sense: For many peoples, he’s a medicine symbol. The association comes from Bear’s own behavior in the natural world — his ability to know instinctively which plants and roots are healthy and necessary to his survival, and his practice of using his powerful paws and claws to dig them out of the ground.
. . .
Mark doesn’t do “vintage-style” carving per se. He does let the stone speak for itself. His lines are simple and spare, clean and free of distracting detail. The featured piece above is done in the “humpbacked” style, but if you look at it closely, it really doesn’t have a hump: It’s a smooth, clean line, rounded perfectly on either side and just begging to be stroked. Mark reserves his ornamentation for the bundles.
The bundles. Another hallmark of Pueblo carving. You may hear people refer to them interchangeably as “medicine bundles” or “offering bundles.” It’s mostly a difference of letters strung together; they tend to mean the same thing. It’s a concept that is a little hard to translate for outsiders. In explaining it to customers, I use the Christian concept of tithing as an example: Stripped to its basics, the Christian offers 10% of her income to God, and in turn, God will protect her and hers, bringing her within the safety of his blessings. [Yes, I know that’s oversimplifying, but that’s the underlying dynamic in one sentence. I’m about to oversimplify the bundles, too, because that’s really the only way to do it in this medium.]
For many traditional peoples, “offerings” are a way of life. We make an offering to Spirit (or to a particular spirit being), because it is our way, because it is a spiritual duty, because we give thanks for what we are given, but also because we wish to ask for something. That something could be protection, good health, help with a specific problem or task, or something else entirely. It’s probably a universal impulse: to promise something to forces more powerful than oneself in exchange for something desperately needed, or at least wanted. Fetishes are carvings that are thought by some to embody the spirit of the animal or other being evoked from the stone (or shell, in some cases). Different peoples have different explanations for and methods of “inspiriting” such carvings, but the concept — and the duties that attach thereto — are taken seriously. For example, some people set aside a special place for certain carvings, where they “feed” them with offerings of cornmeal and water. Those who create such carvings often add tiny things of value — offerings — such as bits of turquoise or coral or shell, perhaps some small feathers, tied on with sinew. These are a gift to the spirit that the carving represents, and the reasons for doing it might include an expression of thanksgiving, a prayer for assistance, a hope that the special traits and powers that belong to that entity will accrue to the carver or the holder. This is where the “medicine” connection comes in, since we define spiritual interactions and interrelationships, as well as physical treatments and remedies, as “medicine.”
Mark’s medicine bundles are one-of-a-kind — both in terms of each individual bundle and his style of making them. They’re valuable in their own right. Complex, full of vibrant colors and textures, they include multiple elements, but some are virtually always present. He stabilizes them with a couple of stalks of dried fibrous plant, and attaches feathers, usually a combination of traditional-looking turkey feathers and brilliant macaw feathers. He’s told me that he gets the macaw feathers specially, from an Oklahoma supplier who maintains a stock specifically for Native artists to use. Beneath the feathers, he attaches small gifts of substantial value: large pieces of natural turquoise; individual shells; good-sized ancient pottery sherds, usually black-on-white. The effect is breathtaking.
And in this piece, it all comes together with the kind of solidity and substance rarely found in simple Pueblo bear carvings. From its description in the Other Artists: Sculpture Gallery here on the site:
This enormous medicine bear by master carver Mark Swazo-Hinds (Tesuque Pueblo) is substantial enough to be displayed on a large coffee table. A museum-quality showpiece carved of very pale sandstone in a subtle version of the traditional Southwest hump-backed style, he’s more than a foot long and extremely heavy. He carries a complex medicine bundle crafted in Mark’s own inimitable style, of macaw and turkey feathers, pieces of turquoise, old pottery sherds, and shells, tied on with fabric to keep it secure.
Sandstone; turkey feathers; macaw feathers; pottery sherds; turquoise; shells; fabric
$2,500 + shipping, handling, and insurance
Weight and fragility require special handling; extra shipping charges apply
Yes, it’s expensive. Deservedly so. It’s the kind of piece that comes along once in a very great while, and it takes time for it to find its home.
When it does, it’ll be the right home: one that needs the medicine this big, majestic manifestation of Bear carries with him, and one that will honor what he represents.
Tomorrow: More from Mark, in the form of a wholly different kind of Spirit Being.
~ Aji
All content, including photos and text, are copyright Wings and Aji, 2015; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owners.
