Words can't begin to describe
how thrilled we are to have acquired this beautiful toy cradleboard
by world renowned beadwork artist Juanita Growing Thunder Fogarty!
Juanita and her mother are
considered by many as the front runners in this genre, as they
have been featured by every major publication on the subject
and have been commissioned by public institutions, as well as
private collectors, all over the world.
Having never sought representation
through a gallery before, my meeting with Juanita was somewhat
coincidental and a surprise for both of us. I had met her brother
Darryl at the Northern Plains Indian Art Market in Sioux Falls,
South Dakota earlier last year. So when I saw Juanita and Joyce
at the Heard, I decided to stop by and introduce myself.
I explained that I had met
Darryl, and before I had the chance to give her my card, she
quickly opened the most recent issue of American Indian Art magazine
to proudly show me where her brother's work was appearing in
a full page ad for a gallery who was carrying his work. As I
handed her my card, she realized the ad was mine, and
we both laughed.
After discussing her brother's
work and learning of her own personal interest in ledger art,
Juanita decided that she'd like to try doing business with me.
Knowing that Juanita certainly doesn't "need" gallery
promotion or representation, I was indeed thrilled that she recognized
my passion and enthusiasm for Plains art and wanted to work with
me.
Subsequently, this may be
the first time one of Juanita's award-winning works of art has
been made available on the open market.
Juanita Growing Thunder-Fogarty
began beading simple belts at age 10 and soon graduated to dolls,
cradle boards, rifle scabbards, knife cases, and tobacco, pipe,
and medicine bags adorned with beads, tassels, and quills modeled
on those her nomadic Sioux and Assiniboine ancestors packed and
carried across the Plains.
August’s Santa Fe Indian
Market is more akin to a religious calling than a business opportunity.
The event consumes her year-round, whether she is preparing for
the upcoming market or completing orders and commissions received
the previous summer. Springtime often finds this artist of Sioux
and Assiniboine heritage getting ready for the big show by rising
at 3 a.m. and working until 9 p.m. Still, she might arrive in
Santa Fe with only one or two beaded pieces available for purchase.
The value of this lifestyle
has never been questioned since the Growing Thunder family’s
first Indian Market 21 years ago, when Juanita’s mother,
Joyce, also a beader, won best of show. It was milestone for
them all: “Neither my mother nor any of our relatives—people
who have done traditional arts for their lifetimes—had ever
really gotten any recognition,” Growing Thunder-Fogarty
says. “When we saw that my mother’s piece, an Assiniboine
man’s outfit, had won the top award, we all started bawling.”
Juanita has been honored four
times at Santa Fe Indian Market herself with best of class ribbons,
and in her rare off-time, she dances in powwows wearing a Sioux-style
woman’s traditional outfit with solid-beaded yoke, large
beaded purse, leggings, moccasins, belt, knife case, and fire
bag.
The regalia took seven years
to construct and represents a crowning achievement in the annals
of her family. Growing Thunder-Fogarty’s great-grandmother
made 17 women’s outfits in her lifetime, all by kerosene
lantern, and her mother, Joyce, recently completed a woman’s
outfit commissioned by the Smithsonian now on exhibit.
(Excerpt taken from Soutwest
Art Magazine)
