User:Aadkinson/sandbox

Leading Section
Mootzka is most famous for the Watercolor art of the Hopi people. His art depicts a variety of scenes of the Hopi people's culture.

Early life
Waldo Mootzka was born in 1903 near Oraibi, Arizona. Mootzka was born into the Hopi tribe. The Hopi are a peaceful people who have persevered against the harsh conditions where they dwell. This depiction of the Hopi people was observed by colonizers that came to look at this part of America. Hopi have existed for so long but they got a formal depiction of owning land in 1882. His father was Tom Mootzka and his mother was a member of the badger clan. Based on census data Mootzka also grew up with three sisters Daisy Mootska, Amelia Mootska,and Norma Mootska. Growing up in this Hopi culture is what spired most of the subjects of Mootzka's Paintings. However, there is not much said about his young childhood. Once he started to come of age he attended Oraibi day school. Oraibi school was a boarding school that attempted to erase the Hopi culture and replace it with proper Anglo culture. However, some of the teachers at this boarding school secretly let the students paint. Some individuals used this in order to express their culture. At the boarding school is where his informal training started by observing fellow native American painter Fred Kabatori. There is no record of Waldo Mootzka being married. Most of his life is lost to time. However, at the end of his life he started to study silver smiting in Santa Fe. Waldo Mootzka died in 1940 due to a car accident that exacerbated his tuberculosis.

Career
Waldo Mootzka career started during his time at boarding school observing fellow painter Fred Kabotie. However, Mootzka never formally trained under anyone for his watercolor skills. The skills were all self-taught. Most of the paintings that Mootzka did were about the Hopi life and the ceremonies within it; however, he did experiment more than some of his fellow painters. This might indicate a European influence he gained at boarding school. Mootzka's art was part of a weirder movement in the pueblo area. These art movements were called the studio movement and the southwest movement. The late part of his career was not in watercolor but instead in silversmithing. Around 1930 in Santa Fe, he was sponsored by Frank Patania, who taught him silversmithing.

Accomplishments
 Collections 

Waldo Mootzka's work can be seen in the collections at the Museum of the American Indian in New York; the Gilcrease Institute and the Philbrook Art Center in Tulsa, Oklahoma; the Heard Museum, Phoenix, Arizona; the Museum of Northern Arizona, Flagstaff, Arizona; the Wheelwright Museum of the American Indian, Santa Fe, New Mexico; and the Southwest Museum, Los Angeles, California.  Published Work 

Nelson (1937)

Theater arts monthly (1933)

Famous paintings
Based on the most common paintings found

Title(s): Corn Dance

Creator(s): Waldo Mootzka

Culture: Native American; Hopi

Interpretation: This painting depicts the performers of the Fall Corn Dance. Waldo Mootza omitted the background in his images, thereby emphasizing the figures while adding a timeless quality. His paintings nevertheless mirror reality, as seen here in the fine details of the woven designs on the dancers’ skirts, the body decorations on the clowns, and the raised banner over the leaders.

Title(s): Fertility Symbols

Creator(s): Waldo Mootzka

Culture: Native American; Hopi Date: early 20th century

Interpretation: This painting depicts two women passing on fertility. There are a rainbow and many colors on the painting. These colors could symbol the earth and becoming new.

Title: Eagle Katsina Dancers with Mudheads

Creator: Waldo Mootzka

Culture: Native American; Hopi

Date: 1903-1941

Importance:

Katsina Primarily refers to the supernatural beings who are believed to visit Hopi villagers during half of the year. Katsinas have the power to bring rain, exercise control over the weather, help in many of the everyday activities of the villagers, punish offenders of ceremonial or social laws, and, in general, to function as messengers between the spiritual domain and mortals. Katsinas are spiritual messengers.

Mughead According to Hopi lore, the Mudhead was the first being to emerge into earth as we know it, the Fourth World of the Hopi. The Mudhead climbed up the inside of a reed and when he entered this world, covered in mud, he found himself at the base of the Grand Canyon. The hole he emerged from is called the sipapu and every kiva has a small sipapu in the floor to remind the Hopi from whence they came. They are an integral part of all dances and perform roles from drumming to interacting with spectators.

Other works
Title: Bean Dance

Creator: Waldo Mootzka

Culture: Native American; Hopi

Date:1903-1941

Importance: The Bean Dance, or Powamuya, coming up later this month, is one of the most important Katsina dances, and also very significant in the “coming of age” of Hopi children. The Bean Dance matches spiritual ceremony with physical acts of initiation for the young men in the tribe. These new initiates are given a responsibility to grow beans in the kivas, showing an eagerness for the growing season.

Title: Hopi Pueblo Powamu Puppet Kiva Ceremony Creator: Waldo Mootzka Culture: Native American; Hopi Importance: The ceremony depicted in this painting by Mootzka is one that is conducted during the period of Powamu, or Bean Dance, inside a kiva.The two corn grinding females are two-foot tall puppets in front of a screen painted with phallic symbols, including tadpoles or sperm, arrows, and rainbow-like clouds. On top of the screen is a bird which mechanically runs back and forth across the screen. The puppets grind corn through manipulation from behind the screen.

Flanking the corn grinding puppets are eight Katsinas—four on each side. On the left in the painting, the Katsinas are (front to back) Hoote, Nahoyleetsiw’kopatsoki, Hotooto, and Talavai. On the right, front to back, they are Holi, Navan, Unidentified, and Talavai. The two kneeling katsinas are Heheya (left) and Hahai-i-Wuhti (right). Title: HOPI MAIDEN KATSINA Creator: Waldo Mootzka Culture: Native American; Hopi Importance: The Hopi Butterfly Dance, is held for the corn harvest. The maidens dress in elaborate headdresses called tablitas which have symbols of corn, butterflies and prayers. The dance pays homage to the butterflies that pollinate the corn, thus helping the crop become fruitful.



Title: Katsinam and Sun Emblem Creator: Waldo Mootzka Culture: Native American; Hopi Importance: The Soyal ceremony At Hopi celebrates the return of the sacred kachinas from their home in the San Francisco Mountains; at Zuni, the Sha’lak’o dance marks the beginning of a weeks-long observance to prepare for the upcoming planting season.

Kachinas Dance Masked individuals represent their return to the land of the living from time to time in Kachina dances, beginning with the Soyaluna ceremony in December and ending with the Niman or Kachina Farewell ceremony in July.



Title: Rain God Maker Creator: Waldo Mootzka Culture:Native American; Hopi Importance: The rain god is not in any documents of importance to the Hopi people. However, Since the Hopi people lived in the desert they must have held great importance to rain to bring them life. There is a culture that lived next to the Hopi called the Zuni that had different gods. One of them is described below. “koko” The spirits of men who come as ducks to bring rain and supervise hunts.

Title: Three Katsina Figures Creator: Waldo Mootzka Culture: Native American; Hopi Importance:Three Katsina figures together would have been an important spiritual meeting. Katsina Primarily refers to the supernatural beings who are believed to visit Hopi villagers during half of the year. Katsinas have the power to bring rain, exercise control over the weather, help in many of the everyday activities of the villagers, punish offenders of ceremonial or social laws, and, in general, to function as messengers between the spiritual domain and mortals. Katsinas are spiritual messengers.

Work cited
    