ZUNI: A VILLAGE OF ARTISTS THIRD VISIT I
GARRY VACIT SIGNED THIS PAINTING OF SHALAKO AS VACITO
ERNIE LALIO WITH THE ORIGINAL TEXAS CANYON HOT SHOTS
14
October 2017
t seems like all Zunis have a gene for artwork and it comes out in many different ways. Often really good artists—pencil, ink, or paint—find their first creative outlet in watercolors because pencils, paint and poster board are fairly cheap. And public school supplies the means and a bit of education. Unfortunately most of the talented young people move on to more profitable mediums like carving, pottery, or jewelry; sometimes all three. When Teddy Weahkee started painting in the early Thirties, he got in some trouble with tribal leaders who criticized his use of religious figures. Eighty years later this issue has not been settled and probably never will be. In every time and place, artists have ignored—even defied—cultural restrictions. Teacher and administrator Clara Gonzales found young artists in the school with talent and gave them an outlet. Years ago when I talked with Sam Poblano about Gonzales’ supportive attitude, he thought she had hidden the artwork from the censors. Her ambitious and wonderful use of student artists to paint covers for each and every school yearbook would have been hard to hide. Porfilio Sheyka, Dixon Shebala, Pete Gasper, Joseph Pinto, and Barton Ghahate were some of the illustrators of yearbook covers. That list is probably incomplete. Being a competent sketch artist is a valuable talent for other arts. Anthony Edaakie was not only multitalented, he was also very generous. More than one person in Zuni has told me Anthony made patterns for them to use in their jewelry. Porfilio Sheyka was another jeweler who was also an accomplished artist. Pete Gasper is best known today for his fine fetish work, but he was a master silversmith before that. He was identified as one of the yearbook artists. The largest piece of his work I have seen was painted in 1958. It is meticulously done, carefully colored and clean with tight, pleasing lines. Some time ago, I found two paintings by Ernie Lalio, a person I had never heard of. They were first rate and I wanted to know more about him. Ernie Lalio was born in 1934, so he came of age in the fifties when Zuni was a place transformed. That was the period when Zuni got electricity, running water, sewers, and a EAGLE DANCER BY ERNIE LALIO — 1955 WAS A good road into Gallup. GOOD YEAR Ernie was in high school during the period the art scene was gaining momentum. The Indian Art School in Santa Fe was
