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.
Anyway, a lot of really great Native artists participated. All of them are friends, and many of them are deceased today. Not all who entered were painters or drawers. It's incredible how talent crosses lines, but many jewelers, potters, and other types of artists competed. I remember watching painter Bill Rabbit sitting next to sculptor Charlie Pratt (one was about 6'2" and the other around 5'6"), laughing and joking as they crafted their work.
After the competition, audience members voted for the winner, then auctioned all pieces to benefit the IACA. Like everyone else, I was wandering around the displays, looking at all the finished works, when I stopped in front of Clifford Brycelea's watercolor of a hogan with trees surrounding it and backed by a desert sky.
John Ballou, a well-known Cherokee artist and one-time Artist of the Year for the Association, stepped up behind me and asked, "No one does detail in watercolor like Clifford, do they?" I had to agree.
But I didn't say that even in other media, and acrylics were one of Clifford's favorites; his detail was amazing.
We met in 1975 when he was a senior at Fort Lewis College, and I was heading out to do a show at the college Bookstore at UC Northridge. I got a call from the head of the bookstore, and she asked me if we had any paintings by Indian artists that we could bring out for the show.
We primarily specialized in Navajo weaving and Indian jewelry back then, but I said yes. When we hung up, I called Professor Carlisle at Fort Lewis College and asked her if she knew any good student painters. She recommended Clifford Brycelea.
He brought some paintings down, and I liked them. Being spiritual, I knew they would go over at the Northridge show. I asked him how much he sold them for, and he said, "$300 each." I asked him how many he had sold in the last year, and he said, "three."
I asked him if he would like to sell all his paintings to me for $100. He asked me why, and I told him that if he did that, I would wholesale them to dealers around the country for $150, and they could sell them for $300, his regular price. And he could sell a lot of paintings.
Clifford is a smart guy, and he said yes. I got lucky because he really was that good, and we sold hundreds of his watercolors over the years. Of course, the prices went up! He also painted in acrylics on canvas, which were a lot more expensive.
Clifford and I did shows around the West. My father introduced him to Louis L'Amour, and Louis and his wife Kathy hosted a private showing for Clifford in their home. Louis used one of his paintings on the cover of his book, The Haunted Mesa. At a show in Utah, I introduced him to Terry Tempest Williams, who asked him to illustrate her first book, Pieces of White Shell.
They later traveled to New York to promote the book, and Terry remembers that at one point, she got lost. Clifford was able to lead them back to the hotel.
Clifford entered one of his first large acrylic paintings into the Museum of Northern Arizona Museum Navajo Show. It is the blue ribbon painting we are featuring today. It was painted in 1976 and is titled We Are Under One Nation. It depicts elements of many Native tribes along with an early flag of the United States. He won the first prize award in painting, his first Blue Ribbon, and brought it back to Durango, where I had to buy it.
We Are Under One Nation
"How much is it?" I asked, and he replied, "I was asking $800 for it at the show. How much will you pay me?"
He thought I wanted to buy it at a discount and sell it, which he would have been fine with, but I wrote him a check for $800.
He was beginning his career, and you don't give away a prize winner. Since then, he has won many blue ribbons and gathered a lot of awards, but there is something special about the first one.
Clifford has had some serious health issues and is no longer painting. He and his wife, Edi, live in Santa Fe. They met when Clifford did shows at Edi's mother's store in Georgia. Clifford and I had many good times together, traveling and selling art, going to shows, playing tennis, and chopping (he called it "making") wood for our fireplaces. But my greatest enjoyment was watching him overcome many obstacles to becoming a successful artist.
He was a high school athlete at Cove on the Northern Navajo Reservation. His counselor told him to look into a vocational school when he graduated because he wasn't college material. He went home, packed a bag, and hitchhiked to Durango, where he enrolled in Fort Lewis College and graduated in three years.
He is one of the few artists I know that, until his health became an issue, was always an artist. He never had another job. Not many artists can say that.
He is an extraordinary person and is having a hard time now. I send healing thoughts and prayers for him and Edi that he gets through this challenge and ask for you to join me. Clifford is one of the kindest, most competitive, happiest, and humblest people I have ever known and one of the most talented artists we have ever worked with. It has been an honor to represent his work!
