TYRA QUETAWKI QUETAWKI TYRA
ZUNI ART ART FOR FOR THE THE TWENTY-FIRST TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY CENTURY ZUNI
T
hough she comes from a family with more than its share of artists, Tyra Quetawki found her muse following conventional skills. After high school she entered the nursing program at UNM-Gallup, then moved to the main campus in Albuquerque to study computer science. As computers have become smarter and faster, new uses are being developed. Tyra liked using Photoshop and as time passed, she became more and more interested in the computer’s artistic possibilities and started taking art classes. When she heard of a class called “Visualizing Ideas and
TYRA QUEAWKI
only Native in the class. In the meantime, her life was plenty exciting. She was Miss Zuni, and Miss UNM-Gallup, and then entered the Miss Indian competition. She didn’t win, but she came in first in the dance. Though it was Pow Wow oriented, she created her own version of Zuni traditional dance, and it went over well. Though Tyra was traditionally raised in the pueblo, she became interested in the old ways, especially in dress and personal adornment. “I wanted to know how to tie my hair in the old way, wrap the women’s Zuni leggings, and things like that. I wanted to do my own.” Her interest in traditional ways, and a class about pushing the boundaries of creative photography were a good match. Her introduction to photographic art included classes in “film,” using the old type cameras and producing negatives. She was given a E. S. CURTIS TOOK TWO PHOTOGRAPHS AT THE lot of freedom and TURN OF THE CENTURY OF ZUNI GIRLS DRAPED photographed aspects of WITH JEWELRY. TYRA HAS COMBINED A CURTIS the village and villagers WITH A SELF PORTRAIT LINKING HER TO THE PAST. that interested her. The THE NECKLACE SHE HAS ON WAS MADE BY HER class final allowed for GRANDFATHER ELDRED MARTINEZ. open ideas and she became intrigued with Concepts,” she had to try it. There were the melding of past and present. only about a dozen students signed up Essentially her job involved integrating for the course, and she was encouraged old photos and modern, using techniques to follow her own interests. She was the
