When artist Hyrum Joe paints the wildlife, mesa tops and cliff dwellings in Mesa Verde National Park during this week’s Rims to Ruins Art Event, he’ll be going back to his roots. As a Navajo, Hyrum’s ancestors have many historic and spiritual ties to the region.
The painter wants Native Americans and others to remember the ways of his people.
“The culture is slowly dying,” Joe said. “The next generation of Native Americans seems to have little interest in the ceremony and traditions.”
He himself was like that when he was young. But as he grew up, he wanted to know more about the Navajo Tribe. Today, he is proud of his heritage and expresses it through painting.
Joe will be participating in the second annual Rims to Ruins Art Event – which runs Thursday through Saturday – with two other Native Americans, including his mentor and father, renowned sculptor Oreland Joe.
“This will be a first time for us – together as father and son and in a unique area,” the elder Joe said. “We’re from the Four Corners region, and the history is in our blood.”
Pencil artist Jerry Cohoe thinks it’s an advantage to be Native American during this special event. He often draws the Navajo people in their traditional attire and surroundings, then shows his artwork during presentations or lectures.
“I’m trying to preserve the past,” Cohoe says. “I’ve always felt the more we know about each other, the better we’ll get along.”
The artists will be participating in the event and sale with 30 other prominent Western and Southwestern painters, sketchers and sculptors. Many of them will work plein air, or out in the open, Thursday and Friday.
Works of art created in the park will be for sale during a Plein Air Art Auction and Luncheon at noon Saturday. The proceeds will benefit Mesa Verde National Park and its fundraising nonprofit partner, Mesa Verde Foundation.
“Because of the success of Rims to Ruins, we were able to help fund the re-establishment of the park’s historic horse patrol program and to sponsor the Four Corners Lecture Series that will take place in the park this summer,” Judy Grant, chairwoman of the foundation board, said of last year’s inaugural event. “We look forward to welcoming patrons this year to celebrate outstanding western art while helping preserve a true American icon.”
Among other artists coming to the event is sculptor Gerald Balciar, best known for his bronzes of animals. He plans to sculpt an animal indigenous to Mesa Verde for Rims to Ruins.
“I hope this will draw attention to the park and bring in more visitors,” he said. “I also hope it would make the public more aware that it’s over there, especially people in the Denver area. Some of them have never been to that corner of the state.”
Additional artwork from the participants will be for sale during a special show at The Wildlife Experience Museum, near Denver, on Nov. 5.
If you go
The Rims to Ruins Plein Air Art Auction and Luncheon will be held at noon Saturday. Tickets are $50 per person and are available at www.MesaVerdeFoundation.org.
