Duhon James

My name is Duhon James, I am Water’s Edge clan, born for the Bitter Water Clan, from Ganado, AZ. In Spring 2014, I graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Studio Arts from the Institute of American Indian Arts. The visuals I have about how the sun, land, and clouds create colors as they engage life is a stopping moment, where you realize how their colors play. Creating these linoleum block prints, is a way for me to create a life form and evolving cycles with water, stars, corn, and mountains. Also, having a textile expression of it representing our elders, who have created different rugs throughout their lives. Keeping it simple does play a role in my community of the Ganado Red rug and interrupting and approaching it differently with stars, a mountain, and a hogan. My artworks visualize the Navajo lifestyle and include a rotating cast of stars, corn, textile, Hogan, and the universe. I would like to acknowledge every elder who has brought every one of us into this world. They are still teaching us, of what it means to be here, and to understand what they are passing onto us.