| Ignacio "Waka Yeni Dewa" Moquino | ||
| Birth Date: 1917 |
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| Death Date: 1982 Artist Gallery |
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| Ignacio Moquino “Waki Yeni Dewa” (signature can be Waka Yeni Dewa) is from the Zia Pueblo. He began his painting career during his two years of graduate work at the Santa Fe Indian School.
Upon his father's death, he left school to look after his family, working at shoemaking part of the time. It was then that he began his art career, designing and painting costumes for different tribal ceremonies.
Waki Yeni Dewa was interested in ancient Pueblo legends and listened attentively to the stories that his grandmother told him. He used many incidents of these stories and legends in his paintings; he also sought inspiration in the old Zia pottery designs. Waki Yeni Dewa was among the Native Americans who painted the murals for one of the halls of the United States Office of Indian Affairs at the Golden Gate International Exposition (World’s Fair) in San Francisco in 1939.
Waki Yeni Dewa took a teacher's training course and taught for one year. Then he went into the army from which he was discharged in 1946. Waki Yeni Dewa opened up a studio with fellow students, Navajo artists Harrison Begay and Quincy Tahoma and Taos artist Pop Chalee (Marina Lujan). There they continued the style of painting scenes of traditional life -- before westernization -- on flat surfaces from canvas to walls. At that time, they sold their paintings for a few dollars. Even more than the monetary value, the historical images and the meanings behind these paintings are priceless, bringing to memory a time and place that no longer exists.
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