Elbert Dayzie

I am Elbert Dayzie, a Bit’ahnii born for To Dichii’nii clans of the Navajo people. The place I’m from is called Desert Spring, not listed but within the Rock Point Chapter. I draw my inspiration from the area’s landscape and stories; I include a couple of schools: Idyllwild School of Music and the Arts, which I attended a couple of years ago, and Northern Arizona University, where I received a Bachelor of Fine Arts in 2002. I dedicate all my time to making art for progress, practice, and improvement.

Western society has been practicing what I claim to be, a painter, for hundreds of years. As a Navajo artist, I find this overwhelming and yet try to inject myself into this discipline. The intonations of my culture in my images are subtle in most cases. Some influential “isms” that make it into my paintings are surrealism, impressionism, symbolism, and abstract expressionism.

Recently, my paintings have become more painterly and have started to harmonize color a little better. I am searching for the unique style that says this painting was painted by Elbert Dayzie.

I try to participate in First Friday Art Walks in Flagstaff. In 2017, I participated in Hope and Trauma in a Poisoned Land, a Coconino Center for the Arts project. In 2021, I won an RFQ at Dilkon Medical Center call to Arts. Since then, I have applied to another call to arts twice and exhibited at Gallup Intertribal Ceremonials. I’ve had two commissions since 2022. I am currently working on four new paintings. I plan to capture new images of landscapes I want to paint, such as the Grand Canyon and Canyon de Chelly.