Confluence: Inter-Generational Collaborations

The Heard Museum in Phoenix launches a new exhibit featuring projects produced by professional artists and the youth they mentor.

From top left: Michael Teller Ornelas (Navajo) and Avery Lomayestewa (Hopi) design concept for "Sinister Sheep From Outer Space," a video game; Leslie Vest (Pima/Maricopa) practices painting on fabric for a project with her mentor, fashion designer Darylene Martin (Navajo), who sketched the dress on the right; and mentor artist/activist Klee Benally (Navajo) works with mentee Shaandiin Yazzie (Navajo) to create a digital multimedia project about cultural appropriation. Photos by Taté Walker (Mniconjou Lakota).

Leslie Vest (Pima/Maricopa) bends over a strip of silky material, attempting to paint what she calls “little people” onto the fabric. 

As her brush passes over the cloth, the 17-year-old is careful that the red oil paint goes only where she wants it to, and the process is a painstaking effort in patience. 

Her mentor, Darylene Martin (Navajo), a professional artist of many mediums, comes over to review her work. Martin lets Vest know it’s okay to make mistakes, to get messy, learn and move on. Vest smiles and continues with her work while Martin begins cutting patterns for the dress that the two artists are making together. 

Martin and Vest are one of seven mentor/mentee pairs creating projects for a new exhibit from the Heard Museum. Confluence: Inter-Generational Collaborations opens Feb. 6 and features works co-created by partnerships of one established “mentor” artist and one “emerging” artist ranging in age from 16 to 20. The exhibit highlights diverse mediums and perspectives: computer programming, photography, film, metalsmithing, mural painting and fashion design.  

The mentoring aspect is what pulled Martin to the project. 

“The first thing that came to mind was my art teacher and all the things he opened up to me,” says Martin, explaining how, in high school, she thought herself talented only in drawing until her art teacher at Westwood High School in Mesa, Arizona, introduced her to painting, ceramics and other mediums. “So [I] put myself in my teacher’s position, because when you love what you do, that’s inspiring.”

The idea for Confluence came from exhibit curator Jaclyn Roessel (Navajo), who says she was interested in exploring the intersection where art and the public sector work together in terms of leadership, governance and benefiting tribal communities.  

“I wanted to look at how quality-of-life institutions, like museums, can impact and create social good, particularly within tribal communities,” says Roessel, who also directs the Heard Museum’s education and public programming.  

“I’ve also thought a lot about this new generation of young people moving forward, not just with education in an academic sense, but [being] educated in their traditional teachings, which can sometimes feel like our young people have moved away from,” Roessel continues. “It’s this resurgence of reclaiming and going back to traditional things, but in modern times and in modern ways.” 

Klee Benally (Navajo) and his mentee Shaandiin Yazzie (Navajo) are working on a multimedia project about the commodification and appropriation of Native people and their cultural products. They’ve created a logo that plays off that of a major toy company but reads “Racism.” 

“I’ve learned that there are a lot more issues I don’t know about” affecting Indian Country, says Yazzie, a high school junior. Her mentor has been on the front lines of both Native art and activism. “The school I go to doesn’t have a lot of Native American students, so there’s not much representation there, and sometimes it’s hard to explain how some things impact me.” 

The format for the exhibit will involve process time done in both the artists’ studios and at the museum and will end with an exhibit of the collaborative pieces. The full exhibit will also include individual works created by each artist. 

Each pair of artists will spend at least one weekend working at the Heard Museum to create their projects. Roessel says most of the mentee artists are being introduced to new mediums and are excited to share in this collaborative experience with their mentors, whose work is grounded within Indigenous communities.  

Another team, Michael Teller Ornelas (Navajo) and his mentee Avery Lomayestewa (Hopi), are creating video game. While Ornelas is well known for his weaving talents, he’s also a skilled computer programmer. He and Lomayestewa, 19, are designing a game based on science-fiction movies from the 1930s tentatively titled Sinister Sheep From Outer Space. 

“We have all these great ideas but we’re the ones who have to do it,” says Lomayestewa of the team’s brainstorming, which must be narrowed down into a project they can complete in a few short meetings. 

Roessel says these mentoring partnerships exemplify what Confluence is all about: the merging of many artistic voices and exploring what it means to be young leaders and culture bearers in Indian Country today. With demographic percentages of tribal people under 30 years old at an all-time high, the need for exchange between generations is critical. 

Martin agrees and says she relates to her mentee. “I know what it’s like being frustrated trying something new and being a perfectionist,” she explains. “My mentee is like that. I had to break it down, like, ‘Girl, perfectionism is fine, and it’s good to want to be the best, but at the same time that can really hold us back.’ So I just encouraged her to not restrict her skills and explore as much as possible.” 

Follow the creation of the exhibit, the collaborative pieces and the artists on social media using the hashtag #confluenceCOLLAB.  

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Confluence mentor artists, mentees and their collaborative projects: 

• Michael Teller Ornelas (Navajo) and Avery Lomayestewa (Hopi): video game 
• Kristin Dorsey (Chickasaw) and Shenoa Moeckel (Navajo/Jicarilla Apache): jewelry 
• Anthony “Thosh” Collins (Onk Akimel O’otham/Osage/Seneca/Cayuga) and Sarah Chiago (Salt River Pima-Maricopa): photography  
• Dwayne Manuel (Onk Akimel O’otham) and Ashlee Craig (White Mountain Apache/Navajo): mural painting 
• Darylene Martin (Navajo) and Leslie Vest (Pima/Maricopa): fashion design 
• Warren Montoya (Santa Ana/Santa Clara Pueblo) and Dominic Burke (Salt River Pima-Maricopa): mural painting 
• Klee Benally (Navajo) and Shaandiin Yazzie (Navajo): digital multimedia  

The exhibit opens at the Heard Museum, located in Phoenix, on Feb. 6. For more information, visit the Heard Museum online >> here <<.