'Material World' at the Open Space Visitor Center Gallery pays homage to natural mediums

What can we create from what is around us, and what can it do for us?

Artists Carl “Cat” Tsosie Jr. (Diné, Picuris Pueblo), Michael Billie (Diné) and Harriette Tsosie answer these questions in their exhibit “Material World.”

“We all use nature. Harriette is bringing in her own little view of how she views, how she works with nature, and I’m doing this, and then Cat is bringing in his (rattles),” Billie said.

Carl Tsosie is a veteran of the Vietnam War and was told to find a therapeutic outlet. His idea? Making art with his wife of 20-plus years that shows their collaboration and honors his Diné and Pueblo roots.

“All of this, her teaching me and participating with me, has been therapy for me,” Carl Tsosie said.

Carl and Harriette Tsosie collaborated to make Carl’s main showpiece, decorated gourd rattles. Carl Tsosie grows gourds and makes them into rattles and Harriette Tsosie paints them based on designs Carl sketches.

“We have a beautiful garden outside, and I grow (the gourds), and it takes a couple of years just to make the rattle, from when you plant them in the ground to when you see what we have out there,” Carl Tsosie said.

The gourd rattles were inspired by a Native tradition, the Gourd Dance, performed by members of the Gourd Society, which Carl Tsosie is in.

Aside from the gourds, both Harriette Tsosie and Billie also have encaustic art in the exhibit.

“Encaustic is beeswax and Damar resin. You mix it together to get your medium,” Billie said. “Then you add dry pigment or oil paint to get your encaustic.”

Billie will have encaustic works on display, as well as eco-printings. He incorporates traditional Native medicine bags that he makes into his artwork.

Harriette Tsosie likes working with encaustic, which uses layers of paint that are heated with a blowtorch. The paint follows the direction of the heat.

“So that’s how you get that wonderful motion,” Harriette Tsosie said.

The art Harriette Tsosie has included in the exhibit has symbolism typically rooted in the outside world, mythology and astronomy.

“The other day, somebody asked me, ‘Well, what do you paint?’ And I said, without thinking, ‘ideas,’ because I don’t want to just do landscapes, which are fine and they’re very hard to do, or I don’t want to just do still lifes,” Harriette Tsosie said. “I want something (that asks) what’s behind this? What does this symbolize? And that’s just the way I think.”

“Material World” opens at the Open Space Visitor Center Gallery on Saturday, July 5, and runs through Aug. 16.

'Material World' at the Open Space Visitor Center Gallery pays homage to natural mediums