Navajo From The Beginning Basket - Elsie Holiday (#421)
$1,950.00
Artist: Elsie Holiday
14 1/2" x 2" deep
Rounds: 33
This wonderfully stark black and patina aged basket was woven approximately 25 years ago. It is from the Mooney collection, and had comfortably lived in his home in New York before making a temporary home here it Bluff, Utah. At least we hope its temporary. It is an early Elsie Holiday creation, which shows she has been making stellar baskets for a long, long time. We are glad to have it back at Twin Rocks Trading Post.
About the artist:
Considered one of the best Navajo basket weavers, Elsie Stone Holiday married into the famed Douglas Mesa family of weavers. Weaving baskets has become almost an addiction for her. "When I go two or three days without weaving I get anxious to get started again," she says. She weaves 12 hours a day, 5 days a week. "Sometimes I think, 'How long can this last?'", she wistfully states, but for now she is content with her art, finding immense satisfaction in creating premier quality baskets.
Related legends:
Dine Emergence/Creation
This is a story told by the Navajo people by word of mouth to the young and old. The Navajo believe there are Five Worlds. We are presently in the fifth world. The first world was a small, dark and water filled world. It was known as the Red World where the flying insects were the first and only people. The second world was blue with the air. The spirit people here were swallows? More about this legend