| About the Artist |
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Brad
Hawiyeh-ehi, also spelled Hawiyehi, and pronounced Hah-wee-yea-hee,
is Cherokee. His grandparents were John and Louisa Johnson, part of the group
of Cherokees who voluntarily moved from Georgia to the area between the forks
of the White River in the early 1800's. Brad's paternal grandmother was Margaret
Johnson, who moved to Indian Territory (now Oklahoma) in the early 1870's.
Brad says, "My earliest memories of Grandma Maggie are of a tall, stately mother of four boys and three girls sitting in a bent willow rocker chair, smoking a clay pipe and talking to her flowers. She was the first of eight children, being only nine years old when her father, John Johnson, left for service in the Confederate Army. As the oldest, she had to chop the wood, haul the water, tend the livestock and other household chores. So, it's no wonder that she was one tough, durable lady"!
"But Grandma Maggie pointed out to me every miracle of Nature, every chance of a spiritual touch with our Creator, the Great Mystery of Life. A gourd dipper hung on the pump of our water well, gourds hung on the fence, butterflies were abundant and bees hummed in the sunshine. I would like to think that Grandma Maggie's ancestral voice, as well as countless others, lives on in my gourd art".
"Although some people look down their noses at gourds, I like to call them 'Mother Nature's Pottery', because gourds actually predate pottery as storage vessels and utensils. Each gourd, born of the Earth's sacred substances, generated by Father Sun, nourished by Wind and Rain, is an original creation", says this native Oklahoman.
"I try to create a design for
each gourd's particular size and dimensions, reflecting images from Woodland,
Plains, and Pueblo Indian cultures. I sketch the chosen design on the outer
surface, then carefully scribe or incise it into the gourd's outer skin to give
the color more depth and permanency. Then I paint the design, using combinations
of art inks, vegetable and leather dyes. These paints allow the gourd's natural
patina to shine through. I complete each piece with a hand-rubbed wax finish".
Brad Hawiyeh-ehi's gourd art has been widely accepted in the United States, as well as in Europe and Australia. He exhibits at many of the top Native American art shows each year: