Navajo Sand Painting

Sand Painting

An artwork based on Navajo sand painting.  We purchase this at a roadside stand somewhere between the south and north rims of the Grand Canyon in 1994. I say “based on” because a real sand painting is not hung on the wall. It’s a temporary, ceremonial work that is destroyed after completion. A real one takes its pigments from desert materials, and this one is probably commercial colored sand. Another curious fact is that the tourist art contains some sort of intentional error (reversed colors, for example) to further distinguish them from a true sacred sand painting. Taken with a Nikon D90 and a Nikkor 70-300mm AF-S ED VR with a Nikon SB-600 SpeedLight.