Melanie Yazzie facts for kids

Melanie A. Yazzie, born in 1966, is a talented artist and professor. She is a member of the Navajo Nation. Melanie creates amazing art like sculptures, paintings, and prints. She also teaches art at the University of Colorado at Boulder.

Melanie Yazzie with her artwork.

Melanie Yazzie's Early Life and Education

Melanie A. Yazzie was born in 1966 in Ganado, Arizona. She grew up on the Navajo Nation. Melanie is Navajo, from the Salt Water Clan, born for the Bitter Water Clan.

She first started studying art at the Westtown School in Pennsylvania. Later, she earned a bachelor's degree in art from Arizona State University in 1990. She then got her master's degree in printmaking from the University of Colorado at Boulder in 1993.

Melanie Yazzie's Artwork

Melanie Yazzie uses many different materials in her art. She makes prints, paintings, sculptures, and even installation art. Her goal is to connect with people and teach them about what it's like to be a Native American woman today. She hopes people can learn from her experiences.

Her art often shows themes about Native people. She frequently features images of women from different Indigenous cultures. This highlights the idea of female leadership and the importance of women in these cultures. Her work tells many stories, showing that Indigenous history is rich and varied. Melanie also works with other Indigenous artists to share experiences through art.

Blue Bird Flour Sacks in Art

A special symbol in some of Melanie's art is the Blue Bird flour sack. For many Navajo children in the 20th century, these flour sacks were used to make clothes. They were also used for tablecloths, food covers, and curtains in traditional Navajo homes called hogans.

The Blue Bird flour sacks are an important memory from Melanie's childhood. They connect her to her grandparents and to memories of butchering sheep with her family. This was a special family event when she was growing up.

Storytelling Through Prints

Melanie Yazzie is known for her unique prints called monotypes. These prints have many layers and tell stories. They often show her "dreamtime friends and companions." Her works are full of bright colors and interesting textures.

She uses stencils and special soy-based inks called Akua inks, which are safe for artists and the environment. She often prints on a soft, high-quality paper called Arches 88. Each monotype is one-of-a-kind, meaning it's not made in many copies. She often creates these special prints when she travels to different printmaking studios around the world. There, she shares her techniques and sometimes works with other Indigenous artists.

Teaching and Sharing Art

Melanie Yazzie is a professor and leads the printmaking program at the University of Colorado at Boulder. She teaches printmaking classes and travels a lot. She visits Indigenous communities in the United States and other countries. You can always find her through the University of Colorado Art and Art History Department.

Besides the University of Colorado, she has taught at other places. These include the Institute of American Indian Arts, the College of Santa Fe, Boise State University, and the University of Arizona. She even taught at the Pont Aven School of Contemporary Art in France.

Printmaking Projects

Over 20 years, Melanie Yazzie has led more than 100 international print exchanges. These projects involve artists from places like Siberia, Japan, New Zealand, Australia, Canada, Mexico, and Germany. In these exchanges, artists create works that respond to important issues in today's world.

These projects help people connect across long distances. They are also used as teaching tools in art studios all over the world. Some of these print projects are kept at the Artist Printmaker Research Collection at Texas Tech University. Other projects can be seen at the University of Colorado at Boulder Special Collections library.

In 2012, the Denver Art Museum invited Melanie Yazzie to be an artist-in-residence. She was the first artist to hold this position in their Native Arts department.

MAPC Outstanding Printmaker Award Melanie Yazzie 2024 MAPC Outstanding Printmaker Exhibition Melanie Yazzie, Professor of Printmaking, University of Colorado Boulder. Kemper Gallery, Kansas State University

Melanie Yazzie working on a lithography stone.

Art Exhibitions

Melanie Yazzie's art has been shown in many important exhibitions. Here are a few:

• "Watchful Eyes" (1994) at the Heard Museum
• "Navajo in Gisborne" (1999) in Gisborne, New Zealand
• "Making Connections" (2002) in Bulova, Russia
• "About Face: Self-Portraits by Native American, First Nations, and Inuit Artists" (2005) at the Wheelwright Museum
• "Traveling" (2006) at the Heard West Museum
• "Between Two Worlds" (2008) at Arizona State University

In September 2013, she helped organize an exhibition called "Heart Lines: Expressions of Native North American Art" at the Colorado University Art Museum. This show included some of her own artwork.

In February 2014, the University of New Mexico (UNM) Art Museum held a large show of her work called Geographies of Memory. This was her biggest show in 20 years.

Her solo show Histories Beyond Homeland opened in October 2015 at the University of Denver Museum of Anthropology. This exhibition featured her landscape drawings, which look like views from above the earth. She used gouache paint and handmade paper for these unique artworks.

The Wheelwright Museum of the American Indian in Santa Fe, New Mexico, had a solo show called "Memory Weaving: Works by Melanie Yazzie" in May 2018. » Memory Weaving: Works by Melanie Yazzie

Melanie Yazzie: Peace Walking, Denver Botanic Gardens January through May 2023

Calling For Rain: Mixed Media works by Melanie Yazzie 2024 MAPC Outstanding Printmaker Exhibition Melanie Yazzie, Professor of Printmaking, University of Colorado Boulder. Kemper Gallery, Kansas State University

Melanie A Yazzie's aluminum sculpture Making New Friends at the Wheelwright Museum in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Where to Find Melanie Yazzie's Art

Melanie Yazzie's artwork is part of many museum collections. This means her art is kept and displayed in these museums for people to see. Some of these places include:

• New Mexico Museum of Art
• Rhode Island School of Design, Print Collection
• the IAIA Museum of Contemporary Native Art
• the Kennedy Museum of Art, Ohio University
• Rhodes University, South Africa
• City of Boulder, Colorado
• New Mexico Arts in Public Places
• Art in Embassies: US Department of State
• Smithsonian Institution, National Museum of the American Indian, Washington, DC.
• University of Denver, Colorado
• The Wheelwright Museum of the American Indian, Santa Fe, New Mexico
• Institute of American Indian Arts, Santa Fe, New Mexico