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, yet I try to inject myself into this discipline. The intonations of my culture in my images are subtle in most cases. Some influential “isms” that appear in my paintings include surrealism, impressionism, symbolism, and abstract expressionism.