I tend to work into the late hours many nights. Days at the gallery are pretty busy. Phones are ringing, emails are flying, we get to meet great customers, and it is always special when one of the many artists we work with comes in. It's busy, and it's fun. But some things demand quiet, which happens for me in the evenings. And sometimes, it's just a time for reflection and spending time here.

Probably the most famous student of Dorothy Dunn, founder of the Studio School, which began the Institute of American Indian Art in Santa Fe, Harrison Begay (Haashké yah Níyá or "Wandering Boy") was born on the Navajo Reservation in 1917 at Whitecone, Arizona.

If you ask anyone who knows Manuel (M.S.) Franco, they will tell you he is one of the nicest and most generous people they have ever known. Years ago, when we had a fine art publishing company, we carried his prints, and he was one of the best-selling artists we represented.

Yes, there is a day to recognize and celebrate Native American Heritage. It is the day after Thanksgiving. The month of November is Native American Heritage Month.

The San Juan Mountains are holding their first big winter snow where we live. For people who love the winter landscape and relish the chill of the air as the season arrives, it is a special time of year.

No one loves playing in the snow more than children (and the young at heart!)

Last year I had the opportunity to meet an extraordinary woman whose father had a unique manner of collecting Native American art. He lived in Albuquerque and never missed the Navajo Nation Fair, the New Mexico State Fair, the Arizona State Fair, or the Gallup Ceremonial.

Back in the late 1950s, Navajo artists began to make small sand paintings featuring figures and designs that were part of the traditional Navajo healing sand paintings.

One of my favorite subjects is the evolution of the Santa Fe Indian School and the Institute of American Indian Art in Santa Fe. It is always interesting to see how different Native artists were associated with the school.

Gilmore Scott  (B. 1974) was born in Montezuma Creek, Utah. It is a small community east of Bluff and south of Blanding, Utah, near the Bear's Ear National Monument.

It's the time of year when the streams are starting to run clear, and you could bet that Stanton Englehart would have been out with his fly rod, testing the will of those cagey Cutthroats and Rainbows hiding in the ripples!

In the late '80s, I attended an Indian Arts and Crafts Association meeting in Scottsdale, Arizona. For the first time, they sponsored a "quick draw" competition that allowed artists to paint or draw a work of art. I think it was 30 minutes, but it may have been longer.

Philbert Hughte (B. 1954) is a Zuni artist and teacher specializing in pen and acrylic painting.

He started painting when he was seven years old. Initially, the everyday life in the village of Zuni inspired his work, but his sense of humor and history soon changed that perspective.