by Maria Staiano-Daniels
Daily Lobo
Four figures stand against an abstract background of clouds, flames and canyons. The vivid colors seem to flow into and out of them. Their faces cannot be seen, but two have antlers, while the other two wear feathered headdresses.
This is Jack Sabon's painting "Medicine People," part of an exhibition showing through April 30 at the UNM School of Law.
Sabon said the painting represents shamans.
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"It's meant to be healing fires," said Sabon, describing the background of his painting. "They're sitting there contemplating a mystery."
Sabon, an Alaskan Athabascan, finds American-Indian spirituality inspiring. Sabon said he regularly attends sweat lodges and powwows, and knows several shamans.
"Shamans have always inspired me and awed me," he said. "I have a few friends who are fairly powerful in that field."
The beauty of the natural world also inspires Sabon.
"It always does," he said. "It always has. I like the roots of trees, all those lines."
Sabon also paints landscapes, tending to focus on minute details such as the shift from blue to aqua to white in the details of a glacier, the intricate, shifting contours of a cloud bank or the designs of foam on the surface of an ocean wave.
Sabon said this detail is part of the unique way he sees the world as an artist.
"Say that we're looking at a stream going down, and it's frozen. I'll be looking at the color of the ice as it's dripping, at the details."
Sabon has lived in many landscapes - he even studied at the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe - but he especially loves Alaska during the summer.
"The mountains are huge. You can be standing there and a grizzly bear can walk by. Anything can happen," he said. Sabon said he always wanted to be an artist.
"Ever since I was a child I've been drawing. I used to get into trouble doing more art than I did homework."
Now Sabon is a full-time artist - a struggling artist as he calls himself. Sabon hopes that because of the show at UNM, some of the galleries in New Mexico will take an interest in his paintings.
Sabon especially wants the craft and skill of his paintings to shine at the show.
"I just hope to produce some quality work out there," he said.
Sabon also hopes that people will form an emotional connection with his paintings. He is especially gratified when people tell him his work makes them happy.
Sabon does not want to be pigeonholed, he said.
"I'm not just a Native American artist," he said. "I'm an artist that's willing to do landscapes, water, abstracts. I'm open to new ideas."
Paintings by Jack Sabon
UNM School of Law
Runs through April 30
