Artist Bio: I am Siigrid Lii’bilNaghahi, a twenty-year old college student at Northern Arizona University. I am majoring in Biomedical Sciences and minoring in Studio Arts. In the future, I plan to go to med school and study to become an orthopedic surgeon. This is my goal because I want to be able to give back to the Navajo communities by expanding out hospitals to make surgeries available to all so then they communities don’t have to over pay or travel hours to get the medical attention they need. I was raised in a traditional family and I believe it has a great influence in my art and my desire in the medical field. My art is more surrounded towards traditional meanings and how it connects to today’s society and norms. I try to use my art to influence teachings and resilience in the Navajo culture. I also use my art and craftsmanship to help provide some money for college expenses and hopefully I will save enough to really help me out with my medical schooling tuition and expenses. I do have an Instagram that I am hoping one day to turn into a bigger platform to keep influencing the Navajo tradition.
Artist Statement: Throughout my life my father and mother told many many stories such as how we are created and how special our worlds are. My father taught me the importance of our traditional foods which are represented here; corn, beans, squash, and mountain tobacco. They all represent our mentality, physicality, spirituality, and sociality. I added the basket and blankets to show a representation of Mother Earth and father sky. As a child, my mother used to tell me how the basket represents Mother Earth and the blanket is father sky. Then my father would tell me how they would both work together to nourish us. The man and woman are offering these plants to another person, both are representing how without the other there is no balance and it is not expected that one should be more giving than the other. Then finally in the background it’s nothing but the gods, the four sacred colors, and specks. Just like the basket the colors are spiraled to represent how we all go through a cycle from the womb to the tomb. It also represents consistency and how throughout the past, present, and future we will always be kind and giving. Then the specks represent the four elements; air, water, fire, and earth. These all represent how We use our resources to provide just not for ourselves but for others as well. Lastly, the holy spirits. I was always told that they are the ones that made us and everything we hear, see, touch, taste, and feel. They are the ones that gave us life and the power to create and destroy. And so far, throughout our history of dine people we are creatures more than destroyers. And being of good relations with everyone is something that diné people do.
