Forty miles north of Flagstaff, Arizona just before entering the Diné nation and the Painted Desert sits a motel abandoned since 2005. The motel was built originally in the 1950s and as postcards from the 1980s advertised “…Our Gray Mountain motel is the Gateway to the Grand Canyon.”
Having fallen into a state of disrepair on a highway heavily used by motorists from the Navajo nation and around the world the Painted Desert Project invited Phoenix based artist Thomas “Breeze” Marcus to assemble a crew of artists to envision the space differently.
The crew included:
- Vyalone – Zuni, Raramuri, Chicano
- Breeze – Tohono O’odham / Adimel O’odham / Ponca / Otoe
- Douglas Miles – Apache
- Jerrel Singer – Diné
- LivA’ndrea Knoki – Diné
They assembled November 16 – 20, 2020 just before the temperature dropped and snow fell to paint socially distanced and masked for the Painted Desert Project.
Very interesting project; and the artwork is phoenominal. The message…hmmm. Does anyone really believe that Native American tribes were completely peaceful to each other, and never fought wars between tribes or had land disputes before Europeans came here? The assertion “American Rent is Due” is nonsensical victim mentality, and it denies centuries of history that occurred before European settlement of the North American continent. I’m not saying it was “right”. It was how mankind, nearly all of mankind, operated at the time. Until someone invents a time machine, it cannot be changed. Looking back and trying to blame people alive now, for things that happened hundreds of years ago (or thousands..how far do you want to go back?) is not healthy or just.
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Hi James. Thank you for the feedback. I think the “American Rent is Due” sentiment is akin to the movement of native tribes trying to get land back. The Bears Ears in the Four Corners is a good example of this. However, rather than speak for the artist who wrote this I can connect you with him directly if you’d like.
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I would like to be connected with the artist directly to speak about collaboration.
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Hi Maria,
Season’s Greetings. The lead artist on this project is Thomas Breeze Marcus who can be reached at breezephx@gmail.com. I’ll let him know to look out for an email from you. Have a great 2021.
ct
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The project makes me feel like I got to hear from a community I have passed through before without getting to connect with. It looks like a reclamation of place and it gave me hope for life.
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thank you for taking the time to check everything out and for taking a moment to share those thoughts.
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