Pablita Velarde/Painting Her People: Painting Her People

Rating:
Summary: A "must" for students of Native American art history
Review: Pablita Verlarde: Painting Her People is an impressive artbook that beautifully presents an historical and compelling memoir of the artist, enhanced with twenty-eight of her paintings in full color, including some previously unpublished and rarely seen. Biographer Marcella Ruch spent many hours with Pablita Verlarde recording her stories as first person reminiscences and includes anecdotes drawn from her Pueblo childhood, her mother's early death from TB, her experiences at St. Catharine's Indian School at age 5, her later years at the Santa Fe Indian School (working with Dorothy Dunn to develop her art), and painting murals at Bandelier under the WPA. There are personal reflections on the struggle to raise her children alone, and her eventual fame as an Native American painter. Here also are stories about the experiences of being a Native American woman in the 20s, 30s, and 40s, as well as being an artist able to triumph over many difficulties. Each story is illustrated with one of her paintings of Pueblo life, a photograph from her personal collection, or an historical photograph from the Museum of New Mexico photo archives. A "must" for students of Native American art history in general, and the work of Pablita Verlarde in particular, Pablita Velarde: Painting Her People is also available in paperback (0937206652, $18.95).