227: A NAVAJO SAND PAINTING MEMORY AID ATTRIBUTED TO HATHALE

The design on cloth in graphite and pigments, open to the east (?) is the work of Dennis Hathale (born 1961) or his brother Bruce (born 1956) - or both working together. The image depicts four Thunderers from a sand painting. The Hathales' father Roger was a respected Navajo medicine man known as ''the medicine man from Tes Nez Iah.'' The family name Hataalii, meaning ''sand painter: or ''medicine man'' eventually became anglicized to Hathale.

A Navajo sand painting memory aid is a small-scale, temporary drawing made by medicine men to help them recall the complex designs used in ceremonial sand paintings. Instead of the full, ritual version-which is large, elaborate, and created on the ground during healing ceremonies-these memory aids were were not made for, nor used, in ceremonies.

A design ''open to the east'' honors the direction of the rising sun and is associated with beginnings, renewal, and life.
Measures 31.25 x 32, frame size 35 x 35.75 inches.
Very good condition.
Provenance: The Estate of Ronald Slowinski.
$300 - $450