Ute artists

Ute art techniques passed down through generations take on a contemporary twist at the Ute Mountain Ute Art Show on display now at the Chapin Mesa Archaelogical Museum in Mesa Verde National Park.

Three Ute artists were on hand to showcase their work Monday: Norman Lansing, his daughter Babe Lansing and Judy Knight-Frank.

Norman Lansing specializes in intricate ceramic glaze etching, ink drawings and multimedia illustrations. He said his work conveys a message of balance.

“Everything is combined together in a universal form that keeps the balance going — the ecosystem of our life, of our planet, of everything that works together to sustain life,” he said. “The expression of my paintings and my vases are just dealing with letting people know that there’s more important things than money. We need to heal our Earth and come together as human beings to have that bond, to work together and have universal peace.”

The elder Lansing said he is best known for his work with ceramic etching, which involves 20 to 30 layers of colored and black glazes etched in as human hair into intricate illustrations.

Large vases can take 42 to 72 hours, while smaller ones can be completed in four hours, he said.

“I enjoy this media because it feels good,” he said. “I have more control over it. ... I put the color layers on top and etch the colored layers off without going through the clay itself. That’s why I build up the layers on the clay.”

Norman Lansing’s ink drawings and color mixed-media paintings mix contemporary and traditional.

“I Incorporate that with a traditional part of the titles, the meaning of it,” he said. “I just more or less stylize it in a way that’s contemporary form.”

Most recently, Norman Lansing has been experimenting with color.

“I think that what’s important are the colors themselves and how they draw people, how it gets to their emotional feelings,” he said. “That’s what I’m trying to do, is tap into the color so you can draw people with their emotions.”

Babe Lansing said her father has inspired and guided her art career. Like Norman Lancing, Babe Lancing studied art at Fort Lewis College. However, she studied graphic design as an emphasis. She hopes to find a career in graphic design, while creating art on the side.

For her senior year at the college, Babe Lancing completed the paintings featured at the Mesa Verde show. A set of three landscape paintings depict the seasons spring, summer and winter, while another represents a storm.

“These are just breaking down landscapes, very minimal — focusing on color,” she said. “This one’s just representing the storm and the view of how the clouds come down first, mixing in with the landscape behind them and how the colors overlap.”

Her painting “Nature’s Vein” is a blue contour set in stark contrast to an eye-popping red background. She said it could either represent looking down into a canyon and seeing a river, or looking up from the canyon floor and seeing the sky.

“One of my primary focuses on all the pieces was getting the colors and mixing my own colors, and that went in to layering them and having them pop out against each other,” she said.

Having recently graduated, Babe Lancing said she hopes to take time off to focus on her work, eventually hoping to find work in Durango.

“I’m still in that section of my life, as an artist, still trying to find myself and what avenue and medium I’m more in tune to,” she said.

Judy Knight-Frank practices beadwork taught to her by her mother and grandmother. She still wears beaded earrings given to her by her father when she was 16.

“I learned how to tan hides and do a lot of different beadwork, and my father taught me how to do the peyote stitch,” she said.

Knight-Frank sells her work out of her home or at Ute Mountain Indian Pottery in Towaoc. She crafts cardholders, earrings, pouches, billfolds, checkbooks, mirrors, tribal seals and regalia.

“I do orders for jingle dresses,” she said. “I do trade cloth dresses, ribbon dresses, even buckskin dresses. And I do ribbon shirts. I do moccasins, belts. People come and order full outfits.”

Using tiny beads, Knight-Frank weaves intricate patterns on leather, canvas or craft materials.

“I try to use the best material I can, so it will last long,” she said.

A simple card holder pouch can take two days to meticulously bead.

Knight-Frank can be reached at 565-7245. She asks for 50 percent down on custom orders.

Babe Lansing’s work is posted online at www.babelansing.com, through which she can be contacted electronically. Norman Lancing’s work can also be viewed online at www.normanlansing.com.

The three artists’ work will be on display at the museum until Oct. 30.



Reach Reid Wright at reidw@cortezjournal.com.