The Southwest Indian Art Fair is proud to name Delbridge Honanie as its 2013 Lifetime Achievement Award Winner.

Delbridge is a Hopi artist specializing in paint and wood carvings, born in 1946 in Winslow, Arizona. He grew up in Shungopavi Village, Second Mesa, on the Hopi Reservation and has spent the last 20 years living in Flagstaff, Arizona. He graduated from the Phoenix Indian Day School in 1968, where he studied painting with Winton Coles, and spent the next two years at the Institute of American Indian Arts, Santa Fe, where he studied with Otellie Lolma, graduating in 1970. For the next two years he taught art at the Phoenix Indian School before returning to Second Mesa. In 1972, Delbridge, a member of the Bear Clan who are the spiritual leaders of the Hopi people, was initiated into the Hopi Men’s Society and given the name, Coochsiwukioma, which means Falling White Snow. In 2006, Delbridge was named an Arizona Indian Living Treasure.

Delbridge made his first impression as an artist as a member of Artist Hopid, in which he was active from 1973 to 1983, whose goal was educating people to the values and identity of the Hopi through the media of oil, acrylic, watercolor, wood, clay, stone, and silver. Other members of Artist Hopid were Terrance Talaswaima, Milland Lomakema, Michael Kabotie, and Neil David, Sr. Artist Hopid was best known for their paintings using vibrant colors inspired by the murals at Hopi villages of Awat’ovi and Kawayka’a discovered and preserved by archaeologists from the Peabody Museum, Harvard University, in the late 1930s. They worked out of a studio at the Second Mesa Cultural Center where their work revolutionized subsequent Hopi painters to this day. This experience and the 15th century Hopi murals still influence Delbridge’s paintings. Perhaps the best known example of Delbridge’s innovative adaption of Hopi kiva murals is his collaboration with the late Michael Kabotie, in painting the narrative kiva murals for the full-scale replica of a Hopi kiva at the Museum of Northern Arizona, Flagstaff. This mural takes the visitor from the emergence of people from the Third World to our collective struggle with innovation and change represented by the computer and world wide web.

While active members of Artist Hopid, Delbridge and Terrance Talaswaima began carving kachina and Hopi sculptures from cottonwood root. As Delbridge notes “The reason that I am doing this kind of carving, using the soft roots from the cottonwood trees, is because it is more like traditional Hopi carving. I was taught to carve wood by my godfather when I was initiated into the Hopi Kachina Society. I learned to carve dolls for the yearly ceremonies. Later, I decided that I was going to do something different from kachina dolls but still showing the old way. ” Thus, Delbridge sees his spiritual legacy in his sculptures, which have launched what today is known as the contemporary style that still influences young carvers. This style emphasizes the grain of the wood through staining with painted faces and scenes inspired by kiva murals and petroglyphs blended with regular people to reflect everyday things in Hopi life.

His work has appeared internationally in museums and galleries, including murals at the Hopi Cultural Center, Second Mesa, his childhood home; Arizona State University; the Institute of American Indian Art; the United States Department of the Interior building; and Museum of Northern Arizona. Awards include the Santa Fe Indian Market Best of Division and First Place Award; the Wheelwright Museum’s Most Promising Young Sculptor; the Heard Museum’s National Art Show; dozens of awards in competitions at the Museum of Northern Arizona, Heard Museum, and Santa Fe Indian Market; the Swazo Memorial Award; and the “Discover America” Poster Award for Two Shalakos.

This blog was written by Dr. Charles E. Adams, curator of archaeology at the Arizona State Museum, and director of the Homol’ovi Research Program. Hopi history and culture has been the focus of Chuck’s work for over 30 years.