Melanie Yazzie

Following the Diné dictum “walk in beauty,” Melanie Yazzie draws inspiration from personal experiences. The monotype at right is about “growing up on the Navajo Nation. Being with our sheep herd and sheepdogs on the land has always brought such good feelings to me. . . . I spent much time listening to the fly flying by, the wind, the sheep grazing. All teaching me to absorb that quiet moment.” Silent Symbols, she says, is about “a dream I had about traveling to New Zealand. I dreamt that a giant sea turtle saved me from an airplane crash. it took me to the surface where a Native person lifted me to land.”

—SB