Percy Sandy, or Kai-Sa (Red Moon), as he often signed his work, was born at Zuni Pueblo in 1918. Having attended elementary and secondary schools in Zuni, Sandy later left for Santa Fe to do postgraduate work at the Santa Fe Indian School.  Kai-Sa was surely influenced while at the Indian School; whether by artists he met there or by paintings he saw there.

As an adult, he moved from Zuni Pueblo to Taos Pueblo, due to internal conflicts connected to his depiction of sensitive religious subjects.  He died in Taos in 1974.

Kai-Sa primarily painted Zuni Katsina figures and ceremonial events but occasionally executed paintings of animals or other subjects.  In this instance, he has rendered an outstanding painting of black bears. 

Clara Lee Tanner states that Kai-Sa, when painting subjects other than pueblo figures, painted in a European perspective, which is quite obvious in this painting.  She also states that his animal paintings are rendered in the Navajo style.

Condition:  The painting appears to be in excellent condition.  It has not been examined out of the frame.  It is framed in a beautiful maple-style wood frame.

Provenance: an Albuquerque collector

Recommended Reading: The Biographical Directory of Native American Painters by Patrick D. Lester