Beatien Yazz Paintings

Original Paintings by Beatien Yazz (Little No Shirt-Jimmy Toddy. Keep checking back for new additions: this is a living, growing show that will eventually include over 30 paintings.

Beatien Yazz, Little No Shirt (Jimmy Toddy) was born in 1928 on the Navajo Reservation. Yazz showed promise as an artist very early. At an early age, Yazz met the Lippencotts, traders at the Wide Ruins Trading Post and they made available to him scraps of paper and other equipment so that he might practice in color.

Yazz was also the subject of Alberta Hannum\'s books Spin a Silver Dollar and Paint the Wind and his works were used as illustrations.

He served in the U.S. Marines in World War II and was a member of the famed Navajo Code Talkers. Following the war, he returned to the reservation and began to paint in earnest. He specialized in subjects familiar to him in his daily life on the reservation. He has been eminently popular with collectors since the 1950s. It\'s a shame that he is no longer able to enjoy expressing himself in art.

Beatien Yazz is now suffering from severe eye problems. The medical doctors have not been able to determine what the problem is. A Navajo Medicine Man said it is because he once painted the Navajo sacred Yeibichai. To be cured, Yazz must have a purifying ceremony performed by the Medicine Man. This is very expensive and Yazz is not yet able to afford it.