ROSIE YELLOWHAIR
NAVAJO SANDPAINTER

Rosie Yellowhair is a traditional Navajo sandpainter affiliated with the Ben family and lives near Shiprock, New Mexico an area sacred to the Navajo people. She has taken the art of sandpainting to spectacular heights, even though she has only been painting since 1983. It was then, at the age of 34, that she was helping other painters by painting backgrounds, preparing sands and so forth. She credits her uncle, Leo Begay, and her grandfather, Hosteen Beginning (Man who Sings), with sparking her interest in the art. Both men are medicine men. Wallace Ben, another accomplished sandpainter, helped her get started. After she began her paintings, her uncle, Leo, joked with her about creating permanent, portable sandpaintings for him to take from ceremony to ceremony.

Rosie says, “Sandpainting, some people see it as a painting that shouldn’t be done, yet to others sandpainting is a form of art. For me, there are traditional ceremonial sandpaintings that I would not do. I have made up and added to, just going with my ‘feeling’ in painting. There are so many beautiuful stories behind the painting that should be told. Many sandpaintings relate to one another - always in the circle of life, then also you know how one got to think that way. This helps me get closer with the old ways, apply the new and have a better understanding of what was given us, with a greater appreciation of life.”

Rosie collects and grinds her own sand. It takes her about six days to complete a sandpainting, though she usually works on more than one at the same time. This allows the glue in the most recent additions on one to be drying while she works on another.

Rosie’s sandpaintings have won prizes at the Inter-Tribal Indian Ceremonial since 1987. She hopes one day her style and the quality of her workmanship will be recognized as her trademark.

_{Much of this was taken from A Measure of Excellence, First Edition}