Navajo Sheep Cottonwood Root Carving - Marvin Jim (#371)
$750.00
Artist: Marvin Jim
Base: 7" x 7"
Height: 17 1/2"
As the saying goes, “sheep is life”. That may be why Navajo carver Marvin Jim has made this boy look so perfectly satisfied with himself. Marvin puts great care into all of his work and therefore creates first-rate Navajo folk art. There are few things that are more Navajo than sheep, and few Navajo folk artists better than Marvin.
About the artist:
Marvin Jim - Animal Sculptures:
Based upon the Navajo creation tales, the sculptures of Marvin Jim reflect a time long ago, when animals and humans walked and worked together to create a new world. These traditional stories speak of conversations among all beings, of behaving in a manner of mutual respect and of all beings having an equal position in the community. These legends are an essential part of the Navajo culture. The tales are of universal interaction, compassion and tolerance; the things necessary to live a balanced existence.
Related legends:
Sheep
The gods, of course, had had the animals from the beginning of time. When they arranged the world and planned the pattern of hte stars in the sky, they first laid the glittering objects out on a sheepskin. The Sun, father of the war gods, possessed a flock of sheep in four colors. The beautiful and human myth of the Shooting Chant tells how he offered these to his twin children when they had sought and found him. More about this legend