D.Y. Begay

Begay is a fifth-generation weaver who grew up surrounded by women weavers. From them she learned sheep herding and shearing, and how to work with wool. She learned to spin and card wool, and traditional Navajo weaving techniques.{{cite web |title=D.Y. Begay: Textile Artist |url=https://www.unitedstatesartists.org/fellow/dy-begay/ |publisher=United States Artists |accessdate=29 September 2019}} Her mother taught her to identify plants to make dyes and to understand the dyeing process.{{cite web |last1=Moskwa |first1=Jessica |title=Navajo textile designer/weaver to demonstrate techniques |url=https://www.ohio.edu/outlook/48f-034.cfm |publisher=Ohio University Outlook |accessdate=29 September 2019}} At the age of 12, Begay sold her first rug.{{Cite book|title=Shapeshifting: Transformations in Native American Art|last=Russell|first=Karen Kramer|publisher=Peabody Essex Museum|year=2012|isbn=9780875772233|location=Salem, Massachusetts|pages=135}} She later studied fiber arts at Arizona State University where she received her teacher's certificate. She lives in Tsélaní on the Navajo Nation and in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Begay's artwork is influenced by her Navajo identity, the forms of nature and the colors of the landscape, flora and fauna. She experiments with combining a natural color palette with unconventional non-reservation color. In a video produced by the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, she describes how she makes dyes from plant matter and soils, and thinks of the weaving process as analogous to "painting with yarn". The horizonal motifs in her work are reflective of the vistas, mesas and plateaus in Navajo country. Some of the ingredients in her dyes are chamisa, juniper berries, sage and a particular fungus that grows on juniper trees. She obtains her wool from her sister who is a sheep farmer.

Begay has traveled extensively to Bolivia, Guatemala, and Mexico to learn with other indigenous makers.

She describes her work in relation to her cultural heritage: "Everything in my weaving is natural. I use the same techniques passed from my ancestors to me to create designs that have artistic and traditional value."

Begay's work has been exhibited at the National Museum of the American Indian Smithsonian Institution in New York; the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, Massachusetts; the National Museum of Scotland, Edinburgh, the Wheelwright Museum of the American Indian in Santa Fe, New Mexico;{{cite web |title=Exhibitions: Another Phase: Weaving by D.Y. Begay |url=https://wheelwright.org/exhibitions/another-phase-weaving-by-d-y-begay/ |publisher=Wheelwright Museum |accessdate=29 September 2019}} the C.N. Gorman Museum at the University of California, Davis; the Kennedy Museum of Art, Athens, Ohio; and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston{{cite web |title=D.Y. Begay: Navajo Weaver |url=https://www.mfa.org/exhibitions/collecting-stories-native-american-art/d-y-begay |publisher=Museum of Fine Arts, Boston |accessdate=29 September 2019}} among others. Her artwork was included in the exhibition "Hearts of Our People: Native Women Artists."{{Cite book|title=Hearts of our people : Native women artists|others=Ahlberg Yohe, Jill,, Greeves, Teri,, Silver, Laura (Editor), Feldman, Kaywin,, Minneapolis Institute of Art,, Frist Art Museum (Nashville, Tenn.)|isbn=9780295745794|location=Minneapolis, Minnesota|oclc=1057740182|date = 2019-05-17}} In 2020, her art was exhibited in the landmark exhibition [https://americanart.si.edu/exhibitions/native-women-artists Hearts of Our People: Native Women Artists] at the Smithsonian American Art Museum.{{cite web |title=D. Y. Begay's Winter in the North |url=https://americanart.si.edu/exhibitions/native-women-artists/online/d-y-begay |publisher=Smithsonian Museum of American Art |accessdate=29 July 2020}}

A 2018 retrospective exhibition of her work entitled Tselani/Terrain: Tapestries of D.Y. Begay, was organized by the Museum of Northern Arizona.

Sublime Light: Tapestry Art of DY Begay,{{Cite web |title=Sublime Light: Tapestry Art of DY Begay |url=https://americanindian.si.edu/explore/exhibitions/item?id=1006 |access-date=September 24, 2024 |website=National Museum of the American Indian}} a featured exhibition at the National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, D.C., is on display September 20, 2024 – July 13, 2025. This exhibit is accompanied by a robust catalog that is also the first book devoted to her career and includes tapestries created between 1965 and 2022.{{Cite book |last=Ganteaume |first=Cécile R. |title=Sublime Light: Tapestry Art of DY Begay |publisher=NMAI and Smithsonian Books |year=2024 |isbn=978-1-58834-756-5 |language=English, Navajo}}

In 2013, Begay received a Native American Art Studies Association Lifetime Achievement Award. Begay was named a 2018 USA Fellow by the United States Artists organization. In 2010 she received a SWAIA Discovery Fellowship, which supported her travel to Peru to work in collaboration with weavers there and participate in a Tinkuy de Tejedores gathering of weavers. She then traveled to Bolivia and Guatemala to facilitate workshops with local weavers.{{cite web |title=D.Y. Begay Weaver: Projects |url=http://navajo-indian.com/projects-exhibits-shows/ |accessdate=29 September 2019}}{{cite web |title=Projects |url=http://navajo-indian.com/projects-exhibits-shows/ |publisher=D.Y. Begay, Weaver |accessdate=29 July 2020}} In 2019, she was named a Fellow by the Mellon Indigenous Arts Program, University of Virginia.{{cite web |title=Mellon Indigenous Arts Visiting Fellow |url=https://indigenousarts.as.virginia.edu/artist-talk-dy-begay |publisher=University of Virginia |accessdate=29 July 2020}}

Begay's work is included in the collection of the Heard Museum in Phoenix, Arizona,{{cite web |title=DY Begay Artist Information |url=https://5019.sydneyplus.com/Heard_Museum_ArgusNET_Final/Portal.aspx?lang=en-US |website=Native American Artists Resource Collection Online |publisher=Heard Museum |accessdate=29 September 2019}} the Minneapolis Institute of Art,{{Cite web|url=http://collections.artsmia.org/art/123537/blessing-of-rain-d-y-begay|title=Blessing of Rain, D.Y. Begay ^ Minneapolis Institute of Art|website=collections.artsmia.org|access-date=2019-11-09}}{{Cite web | url=https://americanart.si.edu/exhibitions/native-women-artists/online/d-y-begay |title = D. Y. Begay | Smithsonian American Art Museum}} the Virginia Museum of Fine Art{{cite web |title="Hear My Voice" Artist Profile: D.Y. Begay |url=https://www.vmfa.museum/learn/resources/artist-profile-d-y-begay/ |publisher=Virginia Museum of Fine Art |accessdate=29 July 2020}} and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.{{cite web |title=Sisʼłichíí (Sash belt) |url=https://collections.mfa.org/objects/656907/sisichii-sash-belt?ctx=de239b3b-e273-4c24-8bb6-8e2ecb857f84&idx=0 |website=Collections |publisher=Museum of Fine Arts, Boston |accessdate=29 September 2019}}

• {{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jg7UkwEACAAJ|title=The Weavings of D.Y. Begay|publisher=UC Davis Repro Graphics, C.N. Gorman Museum, University of California, Davis|year=2013|isbn=9780988768208|editor-last=Passalacqua|editor-first=Veronica}}

{{Reflist}}

• {{Official website|http://navajo-indian.com/}}
• “D. Y. Begay, Navajo Weaver,” Museum of Fine Arts, Boston: https://www.mfa.org/exhibitions/collecting-stories-native-american-art/d-y-begay
• “Hear My Voice: Artist Profile,” Virginia Museum of Fine Arts: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v9wmz5rf1NU [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v9wmz5rf1NU]
• “Woven by the Grandmothers: 19th Century Navajo Textiles,” Smithsonian Institution: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=imjtRvvA_OQ

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Category:Navajo women artists

Category:20th-century women textile artists

Category:21st-century women textile artists

Category:21st-century American textile artists

Category:21st-century American women artists

Category:Living people

Category:1953 births

Category:20th-century Native American artists

Category:21st-century Native American artists

Category:20th-century Native American women

Category:21st-century Native American women

Category:Textile artists from Arizona

Category:Weavers from New Mexico

Category:20th-century American textile artists

Category:Native American people from New Mexico

Category:Navajo weavers

Category:Arizona State University alumni