On the cover.

Abstract

Margarete Bagshaw grew up surrounded by art and by the Pueblo Indian culture of the Southwest, which was her heritage and history. She is third in a motherline of artists. Perhaps not unexpectedly, she rebelled against art for a long time. She remembers as a child going to the Santa Fe Indian Market, an annual gathering of Native American artists on the plaza in Santa Fe, New Mexico, where her mother and grandmother each had a booth. They would set up their displays by 6 a.m. and be sold out by 7 a.m., and then they would watch the thousands of people who came to see the best of the best.Bagshaw is a modern expressionist and considers herself self-taught. She was an accomplished potter in high school but found the highly structured art classes at the University of New Mexico stifling. Realizing she wanted a looser approach to art, she gave up on art training per se at that time. After graduation, she tried various occupations but found 9-to-5 jobs empty and unfulfilling. She married and established a framing business with her husband, which put her back into the art community. When pregnant with her second child, she had trouble sleeping and found herself wanting to draw. She felt that her inner self was being fed by the art and realized that this was what she "should have been doing in the first place."When Margarete started painting, she was already familiar with European modern art. At the same time, she was influenced by Native American artists such as John Nieto, who, when he moved to Dallas, gave her several large blank canvases, which she says gave her a larger arena in which to grow. Her grandmother and mother were strong influences as well. Her grandmother, Pablita Valarde, documented Santa Clara Pueblo life with her traditional approach to art. Bagshaw's mother, Helen Hardin, began painting representational images such as ceremonies and family scenes, and over time, her figures became more abstract, although still identifiable. She painted with a definite plan and used native imagery, pattern, and symbolism. Kate Donohue, a San Francisco Jungian psychiatrist, explored the life of Bagshaw's mother with an emphasis on her relationship with her mother and daughter. Donohue reported that Bagshaw feels that "her most poignant inheritance from her mother is her spiritual vision. Helen is her spiritual heroine" (Donohue, 2001). However, Bagshaw needed to emerge from the large shadow cast by her grandmother and mother to feel like an artist in her own right.