Sand Painting Demonstration / Workshop

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Faculty / Staff Club Hosts Sand Painting Demonstration / Workshop
March 7, 2012 | By Steve Carr
The Faculty/Staff Club is host­ing two open house events for those inter­ested in sand paint­ing. On Fri­day, March 9 from 4 — 7 p.m., the FCSA hosts a sand paint­ing demon­stra­tion by artist Shawn Nel­son, whose work is cur­rently on dis­play at the club.

Addi­tion­ally, on Fri­day, March 23 from 4 — 7 p.m., the FCSA will host a sand paint­ing work­shop where par­tic­i­pants can learn the craft. Seat­ing at the work­shop is lim­ited. Inter­ested par­tic­i­pants should email the club at [e-mail] by Tues­day, March 20 to reg­is­ter. Cost is $10/person.

Short His­tory of Sand Paint­ing
The art of sand paint­ing is rooted in the cer­e­mo­nial heal­ing rit­u­als of the Dine’h (Navajo) peo­ple. The indi­vid­ual in need of heal­ing was placed in the cen­ter as chants were per­formed by the med­i­cine man or woman and the art was cre­ated on a bed of smoothed sand. The sand painter at the cer­e­mony used pig­ments such as gyp­sum (white), yel­low ochre, red sand­stone, char­coal, and a mix­ture of char­coal and turquoise (blue), along with pollen, corn­meal, and crushed flower petals mixed with the sand in order to achieve a greater vari­ety of colors.