Journey to Balance: Migration and healing in three Hopi murals EXHIBITION

Hopi artists Michael Kabotie and Delbridge Honanie mixed inspiration from ancestral murals at Awat’ovi, European cubism, and Mexican revolutionary muralists to create a new “language beyond language that we would paint so that all the world could see.” Created more than a decade ago, these paintings offer a graphic retelling of Hopi stories and compelling messages for our times. Each of the three murals presents a dynamic relationship between order and chaos, but ultimately offers hope that by embracing our shadow side, our cultural differences, and the hard work of healing, we can find our way to life in balance and harmony.

“It is a graphic that gathers up the fragments of the past so that the wholeness held in the memory and conscience of our elders can be shared with our young ones and with those who have forgotten the stories of origins, of journeys and union, of the early times when the clans gathered and through enhancement and prayer became one people, became Hopi,” the artists explained. “We blended our voices and vision with those of our ancestors in a new effort to restore our political and cultural sovereignty.