Sammy Myerson Navajo Sand Painting — Tree of Life / Corn Pollen Chant, Framed

The Tree of Life / Corn Pollen Chant is one of the most complete healing compositions in the Navajo sandpainting tradition — a cosmological diagram in which every element carries a specific ceremonial function. Myerson inscribed the verso in his own hand: "Tree of Life / Navajo traditional / Sandpainting and the healing in many different ways." He is not describing subject matter. He is describing purpose.

The central Cornstalk — one of the four sacred plants of the Navajo people, used in both wedding and healing ceremonies — rises the full height of the composition. The fanned feathers at its crown symbolize clear thought and good judgment. The Sun Father presides at the top with rays radiating outward. Moving down toward the horizon, the Four Sacred Peaks appear in turquoise, gold, black, and brown. The horizontal bars at the base are Rainbow Bars — protection bars for the sandpainting — in blue, brown, and white. Every register has a name and a role within the Corn Pollen Chant ceremony this image is drawn from.

What Myerson brings to this inherited design is sustained technical command across a demanding tall, narrow format. The birds surrounding the tree are individually rendered at varying scales and angles — none mechanically repeated, all integrated into the composition's upward energy. That level of control, maintained across the full picture plane from root register to Sun Father, separates this from the great majority of commercial work in the medium. Acquired from Bien Mur Indian Market Center, Albuquerque, New Mexico, July 2008 at a retail price of $800.

Professionally framed without glass in a wood bead-rail frame, double-matted in cream with incised geometric step motifs in rust.

CONDITION

Excellent. Sand surface is intact with strong color retention throughout; no losses, lifting, or remarkable damage observed.

DIMENSIONS / SPECIFICATIONS

• Overall (Framed): 34.5" × 18.5"
• Visible Image: 23.5" × 7.5"
• Medium: Sand painting, professionally framed, double-matted, no glass
• Title: Tree of Life / Corn Pollen Chant (inscribed verso by artist)
• Artist: Sammy Myerson (Navajo)
• Provenance: Bien Mur Indian Market Center, Albuquerque, NM, July 2008
• Original Retail: $800
• Signature: Verso, artist's hand, with title and inscription
• Frame: Wood bead-rail frame, cream double mat with incised geometric step motifs in rust

ABOUT THE ARTIST

Sammy Myerson is a Navajo sandpainter from Shiprock, New Mexico, in the Four Corners area of the Navajo Reservation. He comes from one of the most accomplished sandpainting families in the tradition. His father, Cecil Myerson — a 1982 New Mexico State Fair winner — was his teacher and primary influence. His mother Jean was also a practiced sandpainter. His brothers Orlando and Frederic are likewise recognized artists in the medium. Sandpainting is the family's living tradition across three generations.

Myerson works in the traditional ceremonial mode — intricate, finely balanced, and rooted in the iconographic vocabulary of Navajo healing ceremony — while pushing the technical boundaries of the form. He is recognized among dealers and collectors as one of the foremost practitioners of traditional Navajo sandpainting working today.