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Gail Bird and Yazzie Johnson are Southwest American
Indian Indian or Indians may refer to: Peoples South Asia * Indian people, people of Indian nationality, or people who have an Indian ancestor ** Non-resident Indian, a citizen of India who has temporarily emigrated to another country * South Asia ...
artists known for their innovative jewelry which uses varied stones and blends both contemporary and prehistoric design motifs.


Early life and education


Gail Bird

Gail Bird was born in 1949 at
Oakland, California Oakland is the largest city and the county seat of Alameda County, California, United States. A major West Coast of the United States, West Coast port, Oakland is the largest city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area, the third ...
. Her father, Tony Bird, was from
Santo Domingo Pueblo Kewa Pueblo ( Eastern Keres , Keres: ''Díiwʾi'', Navajo: ''Tó Hájiiloh'') is a federally-recognized tribe of Native American Pueblo people in northern New Mexico, in Sandoval County southwest of Santa Fe. The pueblo is recorded as the Santo ...
and her mother, Andrea, was from
Laguna Pueblo The Laguna Pueblo ( Western Keres: Kawaika ʰɑwɑjkʰɑ is a federally recognized tribe of Native American Pueblo people in west-central New Mexico, near the city of Albuquerque, in the United States. Part of the Laguna territory is includ ...
. Tony worked for the Southern Pacific Railroad and her mother worked for the Bureau of Indian Affairs Inter-Mountain Indian School in Brigham City, Utah. She and Yazzie Johnson had known each other since childhood. After high school, Bird studied at
University of California Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant univ ...
and the
University of Colorado at Boulder The University of Colorado Boulder (CU Boulder, CU, or Colorado) is a public research university in Boulder, Colorado. Founded in 1876, five months before Colorado became a state, it is the flagship university of the University of Colorado sy ...
.


Yazzie Johnson

Yazzie Johnson was born in 1946 in
Winslow, Arizona Winslow ( nv, ) is a city in Navajo County, Arizona, Navajo County, Arizona, United States. According to the 2010 United States Census, 2010 census, the population of the city is 9,655. It is approximately southeast of Flagstaff, Arizona, Flag ...
. His father, Matthew Johnson, was from
Leupp, Arizona Leupp ( nv, ) is a census-designated place (CDP) in Coconino County, Arizona, on the Navajo Nation, United States. The population was 951 at the 2010 census. In 1902 an Indian boarding school was constructed here, administered by the Burea ...
and his mother, Marilyn, was from
Sanostee, New Mexico Sanostee ( nv, ) is a census-designated place (CDP) in San Juan County, New Mexico, United States. The population was 429 at the 2000 census. It is part of the Farmington Metropolitan Statistical Area. Geography Sanostee is located at (36.43315 ...
, both from the
Navajo Nation The Navajo Nation ( nv, Naabeehó Bináhásdzo), also known as Navajoland, is a Native American reservation in the United States. It occupies portions of northeastern Arizona, northwestern New Mexico, and southeastern Utah; at roughly , the ...
. Both his parents worked for the Bureau of Indian Affairs Inter-Mountain Indian School in Brigham City, Utah where he met Gail Bird at age fourteen. He was influenced at an early age by one of the teachers at the School, Dooley D. Shorty, who was a silversmith (and had been a
Navajo Code Talker A code talker was a person employed by the military during wartime to use a little-known language as a means of secret communication. The term is now usually associated with United States service members during the world wars who used their k ...
in
World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...
). Johnson enlisted in the U. S. Army in 1966 and served in
Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...
and
Vietnam Vietnam or Viet Nam ( vi, Việt Nam, ), officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,., group="n" is a country in Southeast Asia, at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of and population of 96 million, making i ...
. He studied at
University of California Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant univ ...
and the
University of Colorado at Boulder The University of Colorado Boulder (CU Boulder, CU, or Colorado) is a public research university in Boulder, Colorado. Founded in 1876, five months before Colorado became a state, it is the flagship university of the University of Colorado sy ...
.


History

The artists have known each other since they were children and have collaborated in designing and fabricating jewelry since 1972. Bird and Johnson use non-traditional stones, often resembling landscapes and uncommon juxtapositions of materials like pearls, opals and dinosaur bone. To many, they are best known for the thematic belts they make each year (since 1979) for the Southwestern Association for Indian Arts (SWAIA)
Santa Fe Indian Market The Santa Fe Indian Market is an annual art market held in Santa Fe, New Mexico on the weekend following the third Thursday in August. The event draws an estimated 150,000 people to the city from around the world. The Southwestern Association for ...
, but they also design elegant earrings, bracelets, rings and necklaces which are shown in galleries and museums across the country. In 1981 they won Best of Show for such a belt at the Santa Fe Indian Market. They are part of a generation of American Indian artists from the Southwest who have acknowledged and honored the traditions of their respective areas while pushing the creative boundaries and addressing contemporary concerns. Their work is characterized by an extensive knowledge of materials and by their technical skill and keen design sense… Bird and Johnson emphasize, “We see our jewelry as being very traditional in nature. But we carry the traditions further. The stones we use are of a wider variety than those usually associated with Indian jewelry. The symbols and narrative on our pieces are expansions of traditional symbols and stories.” Southwest Native American
art dealer An art dealer is a person or company that buys and sells works of art, or acts as the intermediary between the buyers and sellers of art. An art dealer in contemporary art typically seeks out various artists to represent, and builds relationsh ...
and book author Martha Hopkins Lanman Struever held the first gallery show for Bird and Johnson in
Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...
in 1978. Struever describes their work, “The jewelry they produce is distinct from the work of other American Indian jewelers. Their pieces are frequently dramatic and always wearable. By seeking out stones of unusual color and surface pattern or pearls of various shapes and hues, then juxtaposing them in original compositions, they have created a unique style. After years of visiting prehistoric pictograph and petroglyph sites, Gail and Yazzie realized that these ancient peoples had developed a distinctive set of designs, from which they have drawn much inspiration. Over their career of more than three decades, Gail and Yazzie have developed a body of work that is both distinctly their own and continuously evolving.” The photos of Bird and Johnson featured in this article were taken by Ms. Struever at the Santa Fe Indian Market in 1979. In 1981, Bird and Johnson won Best of Show at the Santa Fe Indian Market. More recently, they have become famous for their necklaces which often carry designs on the reverse side of bezel-set stones which reflect symbols that are personalized to the intended wearer. They use an overlay technique, which they describe as "underlay", that was inspired by
Charles Loloma Charles Sequevya Loloma (January 7, 1921 — June 9, 1991) was an American artist of indigenous Hopi descent. He was a highly influential Native American jeweler during the 20th century. He popularized use of gold and gemstones not previously use ...
's stone inlay designs on the interior sides of rings and bracelets. The couple live and work in northern
New Mexico ) , population_demonym = New Mexican ( es, Neomexicano, Neomejicano, Nuevo Mexicano) , seat = Santa Fe , LargestCity = Albuquerque , LargestMetro = Tiguex , OfficialLang = None , Languages = English, Spanish ( New Mexican), Navajo, Ke ...
. The jewelry works of Bird and Johnson are included in the permanent collections of several museums, including the
British Museum The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence. It docum ...
, the Museum of Arts and Design, the National Museum of Scotland and the
Smithsonian Institution The Smithsonian Institution ( ), or simply the Smithsonian, is a group of museums and education and research centers, the largest such complex in the world, created by the U.S. government "for the increase and diffusion of knowledge". Founded ...
. In 2022, the
Heard Museum The Heard Museum is a private, not-for-profit museum in Phoenix, Arizona, United States, dedicated to the advancement of American Indian art. It presents the stories of American Indian people from a first-person perspective, as well as exhibitio ...
acquired one of the largest and most complex pieces every made by the artists, entitled ''All Things Hopi Belt''. The belt was made in 2005 for Martha Hopkins Lanman Struever, a scholar of Hopi art and culture. The buckle reverse of a Hopi design of a hand with a bracelet refers to Struever’s love of jewelry. The belt is silver with 18k gold applique and embellished with Yowah opals, coral, turquoise, petrified pinecone and various jaspers and agates (see photo). In 2007 the book “Shared Images: The Innovative Jewelry of Yazzie Johnson and Gail Bird” was written about Johnson and Bird’s jewelry work.


See also

*
List of Native American artists This is a list of visual artists who are Native Americans in the United States. The Indian Arts and Crafts Act of 1990 defines "Native American" as being enrolled in either federally recognized tribes or state recognized tribes or "an individua ...
* Native American jewelry *
Visual arts by indigenous peoples of the Americas Visual arts by indigenous peoples of the Americas encompasses the visual artistic practices of the indigenous peoples of the Americas from ancient times to the present. These include works from South America and North America, which includes ...


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gail Bird And Yazzie Johnson American jewelry designers American women artists Artists from New Mexico Laguna Pueblo Native American jewelers Navajo artists Pueblo artists Native American women artists Women jewellers