One year ago: Michael Kabotie

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Michael Kabotie was a Hopi artist and jeweler who was an innovator in the Native American fine arts movement. He died one year ago at age 67 from complications related to the H1N1 influenza.

A native Arizonan, Kabotie’s work was often exhibited at Phoenix’s Heard Museum. He also had connections in Southern California, teaching Hopi overlay techniques at the Idyllwild Arts summer program since 1983.

In a statement, Idyllwild President William Lowman called Kabotie ‘an extraordinary artist of the Hopi tradition, but also an extraordinary artist in any culture.’

Kabotie studied engineering at the University of Arizona, but he left to pursue art and launched a career in 1966 with a one-man show at the Heard Museum.

Of his bold canvases, which often portrayed traditional Hopi life in contemporary media, the quiet artist once said: ‘My paintings speak a lot louder than me.’

For more, read Michael Kabotie’s obituary by The Times. Also, see his personal website, which contains samples of his work.

-- Michael Farr