A Look Through Some Native American Artwork

The first batch of Holiday Cards got mailed yesterday, the remainder will be mailed on my way home from work tonight. I need additional postage - they're heavy and require double postage. No problem, except I had enough postage on hand for them if they had been normal weight. The insert that I made is heavy, but I love it. I wish I had a bit more time with them - another five days would have been lovely, but they're already late, so off they go. 

We have a lot of artwork by Arthur Begay, 
as well as Harrison Begay. Both of them specialize 
in traditional Navajo scenes. Here is one by 
Arthur featuring a Navajo woman carrying a 
young lamb. Everything is traditional - from 
the moccasins to the concho belt to the 
hairstyle. DH adores their work, so we have 
several at home. I like some of it, but am very 
much a take or leave person for the Begays. 

Because I need to pick up more postage before I unlock the store today, things are a bit more rushed than normal. That's not a problem - the post office opens at 8:00 am and I don't unlock the store until 10:00 am, but it is a swim day, and that's always a schedule crunch. It's worth it though - my swimming is wonderful and I absolutely love it. My arms aren't flabby any more - LOL. 

Duane Dishta is a Zuni artist who paints scenes 
from that tribe's ceremonial calendar. Both of us 
have loved his artwork for more than a quarter 
century. He died in 2011. I think we have at least five 
of his pieces in our personal collection, and I know 
we have one for sale. Dishta's scenes such as this 
were unique. The posts sticking out of the wall are 
actually 3-D on his originals, and protrude from 
the surface of the painting. 

DH is spending every available bit of time perusing the auction websites of those auction houses that specialize in our types of artwork, i,e, Native American art and crafts. We're trying to get an idea of reasonable pricing for a multitude of artwork we need to sell. When I first started Stormcloud Trading, I had a lot of wall space and we did a lot with artwork. When I opened my Mall of America store, we also sold a lot of artwork, although there we sold them framed and ready-to-go; not either framed or just the "naked" prints. Our current location has walls, but they're high - 12-foot high - so instead of a lot of artwork, we put up Navajo weavings. (Easier to put up and take down.) We've sold some over the years, but weavings are always a harder sell than paintings. We have a lot of paintings up too, but the artwork took a weak background to the craft supplies that became our bread and butter.  

Rance Hood is a Commanche artist, still producing 
today at 80 years of age. We have a signed 
litho by him as well as a small original. Prices for 
his work are all over the place, but he's popular 
and quite collectible. We'll need to do research to 
figure out the correct pricing for the original we have. 

We need to find out the approximate value of what we have because we're probably going to end up putting a lot of the artwork out for auction after we shut down next year. We also need to decide how much of a discount (if any) we're going to be willing to take on these pieces. There are a few things we look at and wonder "What was I thinking when I bought these?", but fortunately those items aren't common. 

Allen Mose is still producing artwork. I've had several 
pieces by him over the years. I think we have at least 
one still in the print drawers. He does these fabulous 
blended backgrounds with strong foreground imagery, 
often featuring Navajo blankets or weavings. 

Since today is a bit rushed, I'm going to sign off here. I hope you have a tremendous day, that you're kind and joy-filled and helpful, and that you return here tomorrow happy, on reflection, with how you spent today. I'll be back tomorrow and I'm sending *hugs* to each of you. Mitakuye oyasin.