Juror’s Comments:

Terry DeWald: Very tough choice but we felt the squash blossom was the best-woven basket.

Polly Folwell: We looked at the intricacies of each piece here and what it took to actually weave it. We found this piece the most detailed in its intricacies.

Jurors’ Comments:

Terry DeWald: My colleagues, both being from the Pueblos, determined that that this piece is quite traditional. It is also very well laid out with the base design and the alternating two white to one white lacing on the rim really impressed them.

Rachel Sahmie: I focused on the outer design because this was made to hold fruit so there was not too much focus on the inside but on the outside the work is great. Terry pointed out the double stitching, or the double bands, and single and double and just the natural colors and I do traditional pottery so I’m more focused into like natural things.

Polly Folwell: All over, I think we felt the traditional peach basket was best, although I personally believe each piece is excellent in its own right: in artistry, quality, and skill.

Jurors’ Comments:

Terry DeWald: This award recognizes the use of humor and animal imagery. This piece I saw as dualistic not only with the Sarah Palin connotation but also as this artist “fishing for votes” to get a prize.

Polly Folwell: Excellence in painting; the animal imagery; using recent history.

Rachel Sahmie: The humor and politics in a wonderful piece. It’s beautiful.

Jurors’ Comments:

Polly Folwell: Reflects the long history of pottery in the Southwest from the use of the puki in choosing to make your pot out of, to the clay material, the firing with the smoke clouds, and it being a utilitarian based piece. And overall visual simplistic beauty.

Rachel Sahmie: We all agree on that ... unanimous.

Terry DeWald: And in archaeology they teach you that basketry preceded pottery by thousands of years among the Egyprtians and everything, and the integration of all that heritage there really is exactly synonymous to this award. She knew what this award is about!

Jurors’ Comments:

Terry DeWald: I felt that this pot was the highest quality of craftsmanship and carving and especially in balance and symmetry and form.

Rachel Sahmie: The same thing, with the beautful polish and the carving and the difficulty and the shape and the weight and it being black.

Polly Folwell: I truly don’t know where to begin or end, being a Santa Clara potter myself and understanding the whole process. There’s a lot of skill, a lot of talent and creativity in a traditional carved piece with a lid, and it’s not easy to polish a pot like that with the high sheen and have the lid fit as well as it does.

Jurors’ Comments:

Terry DeWald: I went with this piece because it’s definitely the most innovative piece on the table. not only the separate making of the hands and the two pieces together The piece that’s by itself is hollow too.

Polly Folwell: We’re looking for high quality and innovative use of clay, and that seemed to fit the bill, with two separate pieces and to look at it closer it is actually three separate pieces, where the hands might have been added underneath the second piece and for me that’s what made it innovative, and the understanding that it could be organs of some type.

Rachel Sahmie: Yes, wonderful... the two pieces, the imagination it took to create such a piece. The imagination, the shape, the grace.

Juror’s Comments:

Terry DeWald: I think this artist did the most outstanding job of any of the pots here not only in form and balance but the theme of this, which is Shifting Sands, perfectly captured a sand dune with its ripples and then reiterated that in sterling silver with even more of the rippling sands. An elegant form and shape and the polishing is remarkable too. I just think it’s head and shoulders above all the other pots, although there are some other superb ones here.

Polly Folwell: Simplicity sometimes is beauty alone.

Jurors’ Comments:

Terry DeWald: The Hemis Katsina was definitely the most traditional also the highest quality one. But going with what Rachel said with her Hopi history that’s the home dance and that’s by far the most traditional one that they put more of their heart into.

Rachel Sahmie: This is a traditional carving—the shape and the simple form with the legs and the arms and the material. There were never a lot of feathers on here but the simplicity—this is tradition, just the basic form.

Polly Folwell: The understanding use of a piece of wood, one solid piece for one whole doll; traditional because it has to come out from the headboard this way. I think it took a lot of extra work to get to that point. The broad board over the forehead and the idea of looking for the word “traditional” it represents it all with the understanding that this is the traditional doll given.

Jurors’ Comments:

Polly Folwell, Terry DeWald, and Rachel Sahmie: The judges were in agreement that no single entry met all the standards for an award at this level. Therefore no award was given in this category for this year.

Jurors’ Comments:

Terry DeWald: This ye’ii mask is probably the most innovative art in this category.

Rachel Sahmie: The excellence in craftsmanship and original interpretation—this is a great interpretation of a ye’ii. It’s bold, and the dimension and just the use of the piece of wood. The interpretation is beautiful.

Polly Folwell: We’re looking for original interpretation of a traditional theme, and I think the dimensional carving out of the shape of the wood to make a mask says it all.

Jurors’ Comments:

Terry DeWald: I felt that this antelope dancer represented the highest quality of craftsmanship and difficulty to do. The remarkable skirt lines in front, the very accurately depicted natural rock face on the back, and color.

Rachel Sahmie: Just a beautiful work with the stone work in the back and then you see the front.

Polly Folwell: The excellence in craftsmanship and to work a bronze piece to come to all the detailed final looks to make it look other than just bronze takes some craftsmanship.

Jurors’ Comments:

Terry DeWald: Great expression of Navajo culture, with a ye’ii bicheii mask, Navajo creation or ceremonial basket, hogan, and a rug pattern. On the back you see the eyeholes for the mask, coming up from the third world into the fourth world, and another rug pattern. That’s just really great expression.

Polly Folwell: We all agree.

Rachel Sahmie: ... and it looks like a concho belt.

Juror’s Comments:

Terry DeWald: We all thought that the precision drawing work in the horses and the wind blowing through that scene and all the detail gave it the award.

Juror’s Comments:

Polly Folwell, Terry DeWald, and Rachel Sahmie: Polly: What I saw was the use of lighting in a dark way—which is almost an oxymoron, because usually when people try to use light you see it really light or the lack of light. Terry: and the vision of the sky as far as the sunrise or sunset, and you’re looking right through the figure there into a night sky with a crescent moon – wonderful imagination. Rachel: and just the size, the coloring of the whole canvas Polly: almost makes it feel lifelike Terry: Spooky, dude! [laughter]

Juror’s Comments:

Terry DeWald: Rachel just said all the colors of the stones. I just think the overall beauty of all the mixed themes just the raw beauty from the stones to the opals to the inlay. The ingenuity to link them all together in a pin and pendant is superior, superb.

Polly Folwell: I agree.

Juror’s Comments:

Terry DeWald: This purse with all the gold inlay, overlay and craftsmanship in making the box itself, and the added detail of the buckles on the side of the purse, and the lock itself …very impressive.

Rachel Sahmie: …and the lining!

Juror’s Comments:

Terry DeWald: The technical excellence in this piece, not only in the configuration of making the bracelet, but all the additional technical inlays and overlays and sgraffito and stamp work .. it’s just technically excellent.

Juror’s Comments:

Terry DeWald: Just the complexity of construction of that chain, and as Rachel said, the adjustability of it, plus the sandcasting at the bottom, contrasting sugilite and Brazilian agate, nailed it!

Juror’s Comments:

Terry DeWald: Corn rows and tapered down inlay on top of the beads, inserted beside the beads … a whole myriad of different patterns of inlay to achieve some forms.

Juror’s Comments:

Terry DeWald: The detail work and the motif, the traditional wavy lines of the Crystal regional rug style, the native dyes, and it was spun finer than the other two.

Juror’s Comments:

Terry DeWald: This is just a very traditional, useful piece of Pueblo culture, used in their dances, and it has a phenomenal resonance to it.

Juror’s Comments:

Terry DeWald: My pick for the passion award goes to “Our Mother” because of the concept of the whole universe and Mother Earth being held in a traditional Native American’s arms, cuddling it, which was their concept before the Old World came to the New World — just coddling and treasuring and cherishing our Earth. This was the most passionate thing I saw here.

Juror’s Comments:

Rachel Sahmie: The beautiful finish; the pottery was polished on the inside also, and the marks of the traditional firing, the beauty of the pot and the different shades of the red; the bowl is just beautiful, and the ladle — very traditional.

Juror’s Comments:

Polly Folwell: I love the flow and movement of color and the use of traditional concepts in a contemporary form of color on a three-dimensional piece.

Juror’s Comments:

Pat Messier, Don Morehart, and Linda Van Straaten: We purchased this basket at the SWIAF Tohono O’odham Community Action booth. It is a well woven rendering of a traditional O’odham basketry design. Choosing a contemporary Tohono O’odham basket for our top 2011 SWIAF award is particularly appropriate as the Museum launches the project, Woven Wonders, to care for and showcase our peerless basketry collection. Hartman had a particular fondness for the basketry arts, as many of his family and clan relatives were weavers.

Juror’s Comments:

Patrick Lyons and Diane Dittemore: We were struck by the incredibly delicate and precise carving exhibited by this small piece. We were also attracted by the iconography of hummingbirds and flowers on the top of the globe which, in the Southwest, evokes traditional values associated with nature in general, and with water specifically. We were further intrigued looking at the underside, which bears other water symbols of tadpoles, lightning and the Pueblo horned serpent Avañu.

Juror’s Comments:

Patrick Lyons and Diane Dittemore: This visually striking piece references a traditional Hopi cultural motif, reeds, and it manages to be culturally relevant while presenting the subject in abstract style. We are also pleased to honor a piece by Sheryl because she is carrying on a family tradition as the daughter of Manfred Susunkewa, a painter and katsina doll carver who participated in the Rockefeller Foundation’s Southwest Indian Art Project, a summer Indian youth art program at the University of Arizona in 1960 and 1961.

Juror’s Comments:

Patrick Lyons and Diane Dittemore: We selected this silver pot because it is a type of Native silverwork not represented in ASM collections and it exhibits clean fabrication and design work.

Juror’s Comments:

Dawn Cromwell: The artist has conveyed one idea through the use of harmonious colors, shapes, and lines. The total composition with its variations, contrasts, and textures carries a unified message to the viewer.

Juror’s Comments:

Dawn Cromwell: The artist is conveying his emotions and expressions of fear and danger in this painting. Disconnected colors, lines and shapes come together with images to create an uneasy feeling for the viewer. The artist is finding new ways to represent complex feelings in painting.

Juror’s Comments:

Dawn Cromwell: This is the most harmonious expression of a single visual idea in this age group. It encompassed many of the qualities that represent an action drawing. Movement forward and coming out of the box!

Juror’s Comments:

Dawn Cromwell: This artist has carefully planned and constructed a sculpture that reflects harmony and balance in all the design elements.

Juror’s Comments:

Dawn Cromwell: This artist is a visionary artist who can see design elements in unusual landscapes. The colors, space and line are all in harmony.

Juror’s Comments:

Patrick Lyons and Diane Dittemore: Very few youth artists participated in the Juried Competition this year, and none of the pieces entered met previously identified ASM acquisition goals.