Navajo Sandpainting Art

Navajo Sandpainting Art pairs Eugene Baatsoslanii Joe, a Navajo (Diné) sandpainter, with Mark Bahti, the Tucson trader and author whose family has long worked with Southwestern Native artists. The book treats sandpainting not as a curiosity but as a living ceremonial and artistic tradition, tracing how the sacred dry-paintings of the chantways were carefully adapted into permanent, glued works that could be shown and shared without violating their ritual purpose. Joe's own striking cover composition, a feather-bearing figure beside a great rayed sun, signals an insider's authority.

The cover art is signed in the plate "Baatsoslanii," and the dual Diné-and-trader authorship is exactly what makes the volume notable: it documents the techniques, the pigments ground from natural sandstone and minerals, and the cultural boundaries that govern the form.