Bilson Kee, a contemporary Navajo artist from Kirtland, New Mexico, who through technique of using sand and acrylic paint, creates distinctive Anasazi pottery and ancient rock art scenes of his Dine homeland. His work is known throughout the country in many galleries and Indian art collections. 


The sandpaintings originate from Navajo healing ceremonies. The medicine man builds a sandpainting for the ceremony and when the ceremony is over, the sandpainting is destroyed, thereby destroying the illness. This amazing detailed and complex Navajo symbol of healing has been broadened into a unique art form to be appreciated by many.

Sandpaintings are very detailed and colorful and have designs made up of many subjects familiar to the Navajo people. Colors used in the sandpainting contain every color of the rainbow and are made from many different sources such as colored rocks, roots, flowers, sand, bark, ashes and cactus. For example, the colors green and blue can be made from mineral ores, red and orange from flower petals and yellow from cornmeal.

This Information is taken from Bilson Kee's Official Facebook Page.