Young Diné (Navajo) Boy Tending Sheep

Jimmy Toddy, Beatien Yazz, Little No Shirt, by whatever name he is known is a Navajo at heart. He still lives on the Navajo Reservation within a few miles of where he grew up near the Wide Ruins Trading Post. He is married and has seven children. He no longer paints as he now has eyesight problems. He is, however, an active community participant on the Reservation and is deeply involved in Navajo politics.

He relates in the book Yazz, Navajo Painter that he had a happy childhood, roaming over the plains and canyons of the Navajo Reservation. He and his closest friend, Philip Shorty, would spend their days playing, swimming in muddy waters, and shooting anything they could find with their slingshots.

It is this feeling that Yazz has portrayed the lives of young Navajo boys in his paintings. In this one, a young Navajo boy, supposedly tending to his sheep, is napping. This is, quite possibly, something Yazz personally did. If not, he probably knew young boys who did.

Condition: The painting is in original excellent condition. It has never been framed and is currently shrink-wrapped for protection. It is signed in lower right.

Provenance: This painting is among a collection from the Balcomb family, formerly owners of an art gallery which they closed in 1976.