We have this beautiful Native American Navajo sand picture signed by Gilbert Yazzie currently available from one of our stall holder (Chula, Unit 22). Sand paintings, as created by Native American Navajo Indians, were not made to be an “art object,” but rather were made as part of an elaborate healing ritual or ceremony.
The artist, or in the Navajo context, the medicine man, would use naturally colored grains of sand, and pour them by hand to create these elaborate “paintings.” After the medicine man completed the sand painting, the person who needed the healing was asked to sit on top of the sand painting (scroll down to see a picture of this).
The belief was that the sand painting provided a portal so that the healing spirits could come through the painting and heal the patient.
After removing the illness from the person, the healing spirits returned to the sand painting, and therefore the illness was believed to have been transferred over to – or was now contained within – the sand painting itself.
So once the healing ceremony was over, the painting was destroyed in order to destroy the illness as well. While one can find “sand paintings” that can be purchased as art works, they were clearly made to be art works for sale, since the paintings in healing ceremonies were destroyed as part of the ritual.
