Navajo Star Bull Basket - Elsie Holiday (#395)
$3,750.00
Artist: Elsie Holiday
Navajo Basket
17" x 19" x 3 1/2" deep
Rounds: 25
Dola is the word for Bull in the Navajo language and a Bull, to a Navajo, is quite a valuable commodity. For centuries the Navajo people have discerned their wealth by way of livestock. The more sheep, horses and cows one has the wealthier they are. To own a bull would be cause for celebration because that would mean perpetuation of the herd was assured. Elsie Holiday and her family have a small herd of cows and one feisty little, old bull. Maybe Elsie is desirous of a big, healthy bovine to help expand her brood of rangy roustabouts. Whatever the case we are happy Elsie saw fit to share her thoughts and creation with us.
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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:
Navajo Basketry
Basketry is a woman's industry, which is also pursued by the nadle (he changes), hermaphrodites, or men skilled in the arts and industries of both men and women. Basketry, however, is not classified with textile fabrics (yistl'o), but with sewing (nalkhad). It is of interest also that, while the basket is in progress, the sewer is untouched and avoided by the members of her family?