¡Colores!; 804; A:shiwi A:wan/Belonging to the Zuni; Interview with Ronnie Cachini (Discussion of Artwork; Museum Walk Through; Artist Working)

One of the areas in the valley that catch drawings that you look at see, you came in and down and you didn't know. Did you touch anything? Did I draw your favorite one? No, it was a picture that you can't draw. What? Because we're not allowed to do it. That's pretty weird. Oh, okay. Okay, you're asking me to move up the section? Yes, continue again about the section. Oh, different sections that I work with. Yes, after I've done the sky and the clouds, I do the houses, lay out the houses.

And then after I do that, I start painting the houses, the color tone. And after that, I put in the figures. For instance, I did this one first. I laid out the outline and then I went and did this guy. And then this one and these two back here. Then after I laid everything out, I used black paint and brush to lay out my characters, the figures because pencil, you know, they're too messy when you're working on it, gets on your hands and smears all over your canvas. I used black paint to do my drawing. And after I do that, I come back and I'll do the people way in the background, I'll do the people.

And then I'll start highlighting the houses, having the shadows, the shadows of the beans, and making little cracks on them on the wall. And then after that's all done, then I come back to my main figure, main subject, and then I'll work on that until I finish. And then after that, after the whole thing's completed, I go down here and start doing these little rocks. My foreground and go back and check out all my detailing and redo what needs to be done. Or if I didn't do certain parts of it and I'll go back and I'll start painting again.

This one took me three months to complete. And everything on here is from my mind, what I stored and what I remember about these certain dancers. I go watch the dances, I study them, and then I store in my mind what they look like, how they dress, how they walk. Everything that's their characteristics, then I just keep it in my head, and when I want to do that certain dancers, I know what they look like, and I know how they run and stuff, and it gets to be a lot easier once you start creating and making paintings.

At first I had a difficult time in making figures, the hands, to make them more rounded on the knuckles or the forearm, shoulders, legs, feet. It's pretty difficult when you're just not starting off, but after a while as I gradually learn how to do it, it just comes easy, becomes easy once you keep working at it. When I finish certain sections, for instance, if I'm doing these people way back here, I like to stamp it down with a rack to see, to really see the consistency, the contrast of the colors. If it's dry and you spray it with a varnish or whatever, and you could see your little mistakes and so forth, so I like to get a paper towel or something, you know, wet it down, wet it down.

That's how you'll know that you've got the right color and the right consistency. What's your favorite part of this painting? My favorite part of this painting is this lady right here in the Buffalo lady. I really like her because it's the way she dresses and all that. I know it's just something about her that I like creating her on canvas. Sometimes I'll make you a lot different. It might be the same thing that I did before, but it'll be a lot different and I'll have probably a few more subjects on there than the other one or something like that.

She's the one that I really like. I spent about probably two days just making this one one figure because she has a lot of elaborate clothing that she wears. The necklaces, the squash, but some necklaces, and the ribbons at the end of her skirt, I did that for a couple of hours. I copied these from patterns, cloth, and such, and this used a little brush just to paint them in. They come out really nice, the ribbons and stuff.

What this painting means to me is that the Buffalo is highly mighty and is respected by all tribes. This is the coming of the Buffalo. It's just now entering the village area. I like to call him the trickster. He likes to tease him, make him mad, and he's trying to charge him. This guy back here is the mighty warrior. What he is doing is that he's provoking him. Once he does that, you know, he'll just start going around the plaza area and be chasing this guy and this little kid right here, be chasing them.

It's pretty neat when they come up here in the village and almost all the people in the village want to see him and be a who crowd around. Why did you paint this? It's just something that I had in my mind for a while doing a big piece like this. The Buffalo. I did a smaller version of it, 24x36, but this is the largest that I've ever did. I just chose to Buffalo because it's like I said, it's mighty powerful creature. I just have respect for him. It's just something that I wanted to do for a while, which I had the opportunity in creating the Buffalo.

Is there a story in this painting that you're trying to get across besides just these people moving on? Is this part of a bigger story? No, not really. I really don't like put a story behind my paintings. It's just an event that goes on in our daily life. It doesn't happen every day. It's just something that when the time is right, they appear, the village. This guy, and then I come down and do the houses, all the houses back here, and then the people, each individual, and then come down to the main subject.

Do these layout, all the feathers down here, then do these back here, the figures, and then after that's all completed, I come down and do the rocks. Hang up with the sky again. You can take your hand out anytime. This is how they make a TV show. You can take your fingers out. Go ahead. The houses. One more time please. Okay, go ahead. Let's try that again. Let's just point to that one figure, the first one.

Okay, go ahead. Do that again in just a second. Okay. That was good. That was way. Let's just make a look back to it. Okay. Go ahead. Okay.

Okay. I go with that corner. Okay. Now, come on down to the platform.

Okay. Okay. Now, walk down down here without looking at the camera, which you just did. Looking at the buffalo pin. And now walk down the line.

Okay. Go ahead. Okay. Okay. Okay.

Okay. Okay. Okay.

Okay. Okay. Okay.

Okay.