Sharron McElmeel - Author


Title: AUTHOR & ILLUSTRATOR PROFILE: SHONTO BEGAY ,  By: McElmeel, Sharron L.,
First appeared in Library Talk,  Nov/Dec96, Vol. 9, Issue 5
AUTHOR & ILLUSTRATOR PROFILE


Shonto Begay

An exhibit of Shonto Begay's art work toured several cities in the fall of 1994. During the time that Begay's art was exhibited at the Museum of Art in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, he visited the museum and spoke with educators about his work and his emergence as an illustrator and an author of children's books. The following glimpse into the life and work of Shonto Begay is gleaned from his comments during that visit, combined with information from his publisher, Scholastic Books, and other standard sources.

Shonto Begay was born in Shonto, Arizona on February 7, 1954. His childhood family consisted of his father, a Navajo medicine man, his mother, a weaver, and his 15 brothers and sisters. All 16 children were born at home with a midwife present. Their births were celebrated with traditional ceremonies. The naming ceremony is held when an infant first laughs. Before that time the child goes unnamed. Whoever inspires the first laugh must sponsor the naming ceremony. That name is only used by family members. Thus, for purposes of census and other paperwork, government officials often named the children, using the names of presidents or other well-known figures. Until a few years ago, Shonto Begay's government-given name was "Wilson." But, he took the name of his great-great grandmother. Shonto means "sparkle on the surface of the water." Begay is a common family name in northern Arizona. It means "son of."

The Begay family lived in an earthen hogan (actually they needed three hogans) in the northeast corner of Arizona. The main hogan was about 20 feet in diameter and held Shonto's mother's weaving, sheep skin bedding for his parents, a food supply, wood for the fire, and bedding for some of the younger children. Juniper bark and mud were mixed together and pushed into the cracks between the unevenness of the logs that formed the five-foot high walls.

A hard rain washed the mud out of the cracks and made it necessary to add more mud to the wall. Baskets and clothes were hung from the ceiling and woven rugs were kept on the floor. Light came from an opening in the roof and kerosene lamps. A pipe from an oil drum stove extended outside through the roof.

Cultural beliefs held that the west represents holiness and ceremony, so his mother's weaving and space reserved for the grandmother were kept in that direction. The parents' bedding was placed toward the north, as this is the dark direction. It is reserved for the parents who guard the family. The southern area was for youth and innocence, and the doorway always faced to the east. The round design of the hogan was meant to avoid sharp corners that might impede movement of the spirit feeling.

The hogan was a place of shelter and a gathering place for his family. There was no running water or electricity. Begay notes that the family did "all our living in the hogans. In the evening we rolled out our sheepskin bedding and in the morning we rolled it back up." Many times the children would sit around the oil drum stove and listen to Grandmother tell the stories of Coyote." Begay especially remembers a tale about Coyote's cousin, Horned Toad.

The whole world was the horizon. Begay did not see a vehicle until he was five years old. "And then it was off to boarding school, just a step below a concentration camp," he says. The young boy was sent to the Bureau of Indian Affairs' Lupe Boarding School near Flagstaff. It was his first experience outside the reservation, and it was there that he learned the English language. Was it easy for him at school? "If you mean was it easy for me to pick up the English language? No it wasn't. It was hard." He recalls not being allowed to speak his native language at school but "in boarding school we were always reading about Dick and Jane and other people who enjoyed watching each other run." He describes his view of the world as unreal. "Not until boarding school did I know that these things existed."

He remembers that at the beginning of the school year the children lined up cording to size. "The shortest kids were to be Catholic, the middle, Presbyterian, and the tallest were Mormon." The following year, their designated religion might be something other than what they had been involved in the previous year. Repression of the Navajo language and traditions during the school year resulted in many of the children using the summer to become more tradition-oriented. During school vacations back on the reservation, many of Begay's days were spent "tending sheep and staying with them all day long, riding the horse to the valley, and in the summer helping tend the corn fields."

The mesa became a refugee of privacy. It was on one mesa that Begay found his story rock, a big flat rock overlooking a valley where he could be involved in his own dreams and thoughts. He read his favorite books there: folktales and other stories told by Mark Twain and Jack London. He "could draw the ravens in the distant sky, the pinon trees with wind blowing through." One of his older brothers showed him "about using circles" to draw horses so he began to draw those, too. In the winter the sun warmed the story rock, and in the summer cool breezes blew. He says, "I spent a lot of time sitting on my story rock, watching that sheep didn't get into the corn or that the bobcat or coyote didn't get them." Often, if he got too involved with his thoughts on the story rock, the sheep did get into the corn.

One of his art pieces, an eight-foot wide acrylic painting on canvas, features the rock. The painting, My Story Rock II, was created in 1992 and donated to the Phoenix, Arizona, Central Public Library in memory of Robert E. Goshell. Another painting featuring his story rock is reproduced in Navajo: Visions and Voices Across the Mesa.

Every culture has a bogy man. In the Navajo culture that character is "Skin Walker," a magical being that changes shapes at night. Skin Walker's "whole power is based on how a person reacts to that power." Begay explains, "I never saw one, my parents saw one, my brothers anti sisters saw one. One day I painted (fear)." Images from his culture include Skin Walker, the Hero Twins, and Spider Woman. "Spider Woman is very important in our legends. Part of her contribution is her gift of weaving which Navajos are known for." These images can be portrayed but there are other images that Navajos consider taboo. For example, "We try not to depict such powerful forces and beings as lightning and snakes. And creating images upon natural surfaces out in the open is restrained."

Begay's grandmother played an important role in his childhood. To this day the Navajo remain a matriarchal culture, and Begay's grandmother was revered. A family's roots and clan is traced through the mother's line. There are more than 70 clans of Navajos. Shonto Begay belongs to the "Bitter Water" clan which is directly related to four other clans. Marriage among members of those four clans is not permitted.

Once Begay reached adulthood, in the mid 1970s, he left the 25,000 square miles of Navajo land and studied fine arts in New Mexico and California. As he describes it, "I had spent all of my life camping. I was fired of it." He ended up in Oakland, California, where he met his wife. Then, after seven years away from the reservation, he longed to return home. So he did.

Begay had already developed a reputation as an artist before he became involved with children's books. Diane Hess, an editor from Scholastic, was searching for an illustrator for a Native American legend. At first she contacted the Bureau of Indian Affairs. They referred her to the Indian Art Institute. Of the 17 artists she contacted, Shonto Begay was the only one to respond. Hess invited Begay to submit some of his work.

Shortly before that, Shonto had visited his parents and his 110-year-old grandmother. During that afternoon he and his daughter and nephews walked to a pond where they gathered clay from the edges and formed mud ponies. Begay had often created such objects as a child. He returned to his home in Fort Defiance, Arizona, and the next day, Hess called to offer him the job of illustrating The Mud Pony by Caron Lee Cohen. The story is a Skidi Pawnee legend about a young boy who creates a mud pony that helps him grow into a respected chief of his tribe.

Four years after that first book was published, Begay retold a story that he had often heard his grandmother tell, Ma'ii and Cousin Horned Toad. That tale, a traditional Navajo winter story, features Ma'ii, a coyote (the mischief maker), and the Horned Toad, the coyote's wise counterpart. Such Navajo stories usually have Coyote learning a lesson of one type or another. Horned Toad is considered a grandfather figure that symbolizes wisdom and strength. There are certain winter stories and summer stories that are not told out of season. "One can touch upon it but we may not go into details. This belief of control within oneself weaves itself into all phases of our lives."

In addition to those two books and many textbook illustrations, Begay has illustrated The Boy who Dreamed of an Acorn by Leigh Casler and The Magic of Spider Woman by Lois Duncan. He both illustrated and wrote Navajo: Vision and Voices Across the Mesa.

In describing his art work for the books, Begay says, "The materials I use are watercolors, pencils, ink and magic." He then goes on to define magic as "just believing in your art and creations. Not taking it for granted."

Many of his watercolor illustrations are created using a technique he has developed after much artistic experimentation. The watercolors are applied very wet, and then he uses a hair dryer to help dry the painting. The hair dryer causes some parts to dry faster than others, creating some unusual water marks in the painting. This effect is assisted by his use of salt in the paintings, an addition that develops a sparkling, dreamlike effect. White washes over the completed paintings also promote a dreamlike quality.

While he is actually painting, his work must be kept very wet. He uses spray bottles of water or only paints on rainy days. But he can "draw anywhere and often works at two o'clock in the morning." Many of his larger paintings are created with acrylics, some of which illustrate Navajo: Visions and Voices across the Mesa.

For aspiring artists he has this advice, "Draw everyday, even when you don't feel like drawing. On day's you just can't do anything, do your worst (unless you are an airplane pilot.)" A sketch book is almost always with him. He has his sketch books back to the 1970s. A look through them is an interesting trip, even for Begay himself.

Shonto Begay has returned home to his childhood roots. He shares his home in Kayenta, Arizona with his wife, Cruz, daughters Enei, Reina, and Shonri, and son, Dante. Their house has some modern technology such as a telephone, cable television, and a fax machine.

Thirty miles from this square-cornered house is his hogan. In many ways the hogan is very traditional. There is no electricity, no running water, and no English is spoken there. The entrance faces the east, but it is reached through an attached mud room/ porch. Skylights are set in the redwood and pine roof. On the north side of the family's hogan is a studio where Shonto works. No one on the reservation has electricity from power plants. Several years ago a utility company acquired rights to cross the Navajo reservation with their wires from a hydroelectric plant near Paige, Arizona, and Lake Powell. The Navajos wanted jobs, but no kilowatts stay on the reservation. All of the energy goes on to Las Vegas to light up the streets of that city. So when it came time for Begay to construct his hogan, he built it using hand tools. Since then he has put in panels to collect solar energy and is able to plug in power hand tools. Since they do not have many sheep anymore, he no longer sleeps on sheepskin bedding.

When his family is at the hogan his nearest neighbor is his mother, who is seven miles away. Their home is eight miles off the blacktop road, 90 miles from the nearest traffic light, 150 miles to a movie theater, and 30 miles to the nearest grocery store.

His most recent book, Navajo: Visions and Voices Across the Mesa, is a collection of Begay's poems that express much of his experience as a Navajo living on the mesa. He speaks of the fresh tortillas and corn stew from his mother's kitchen. In his poem "Navajo Power Plant," he speaks of the plateau that is home both to the healing power of the herb lavender and to the Navajo power plant that brings power to "strangers somewhere over the horizon."

In "Storm Pattern" he recalls the days he sat beside his mother while she wove on her loom. He tried in vain to convince her to weave new designs that he had seen in magazines and newspapers. She could not, for she wove only the Tonalea Storm Pattern. That had been a gift she had received as a young girl in a vision from Spider Woman.

Shonto Begay's gift seems to be that of an artist who is able to give children an authentic view of the Native Americans as a society striving to maintain their tradition. For more information about Shonto Begay, including his availability to speak to students or other groups, write to: Author Visit Department, Scholastic Books, 555 Broadway, New York, NY 10012.

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By Sharron L. McElmeel

Sharron McElmeel often writes about children's literature and those who create it. Her most recent publication, Educator's Companion to Children's Literature, Volume I: Mysteries, Animal Tales, Books of Humor, Adventure Stories, and Historical Fiction, was released by Libraries Unlimited in 1995. She is also the author of ABCs of an Author/Illustrator Visit (Linworth, 1994).

This article first appeared in  Library Talk (first publication rights only) Copyright for all other uses copyright by Sharron L. McElmeel.  The contents of this article may not be copied or e-mailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder`s express written permission. However, users may print, download, or e-mail articles for individual use.
First appeared:  Library Talk, Nov/Dec96, Vol. 9 Issue 5, p14, 3p    Current Source:  http://www.mcelmeel.com/writing/begay.html

©2005 Sharron L. McElmeel
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