Sky City is available  as an open edition framed to 8×10 inches for $60 or framed to 11×14 for $95.

Framed Sizes and Prices

8×10 $60.00 11×14 $95.00

The day is coming to its end for this special feast time. The harvest has been plentiful, the hunting’s successful, and the village is content with the thanksgiving celebrations. Songs full of stories of how the people and the buffalo have come to live in balance together, how the prayers for food and well-being have been met through the sacrifice of brother and sister buffalo. Praise and thanks also to Creator Father for His wisdom and watchful eye as He peers over the tops of the clouds pleased with the people’s offerings of love, respect, and honor.

Special care and attention is being given to Buffalo Woman by the Guardians, the Warrior, and the Elder, no one is allowed to know where she resides. If her life should come to an unfortunate end the existence of the buffalo on the earth would come to an end as well. In fact, not even the Warrior knows where this special place is, no one can find it by looking for it, the only way to go there is to listen to the Spirits’ leading. He may take the wrong path by relying on his visual senses, so he prayerfully closes his eyes and trusts with his whole heart that listening to the Spirits voice will lead him to the sanctuary of safety. Making time of personal fasting and consecration, the Warrior can be led in this mystical way, a prideful heart could not respond to the whispers of the wind. The Warrior’s most significant role in life is to lead while being led.

This image of the warrior is also a self portrait of the artist. He desires to be in that place of humility to find his role, to find the path and to find peace and safety for others. To live contentedly in the tradition of his ancestral heritage with love, respect, and honor.

Written by Fernando Padilla, Jr. © 1989 Padilla of San Felipe

Through the monotype printing process this recognizable Padilla portrait of the Corn Maiden figure keeping vigil over the ripening harvest signifies the importance corn has to Pueblo villages. Prayers and songs carry our requests to the heavens, thanking Creator Father for the provision offered to people on earth. Supplication is also made for wisdom, knowledge, and the understanding of how we can carry on the responsibility as caretakers to the earth. Corn Maiden brings the answer to those prayers as she adds her own song for the harvest.

Written by Fernando Padilla, Jr. © 1997 Padilla of San Felipe.

Harvest Song is available as an open edition, framed to 8×10 inch for $60.

Framed Sizes and Prices

8×10 $60.00 11×14 $95.00

She’s growing up fast, and the time is approaching when she will decide to marry or leave the village to become a young professional in a world far away from the peaceful serenity of Acoma’s enchanting seclusion. So she wraps up in her blanket on this cool spring evening and heads to her favorite quiet spot to look out at the familiar scenery but also trying to look out into the unknown future.

All her life she has helped her mother and grandmother making preparations for family meals of flour tortillas, red chili stew with meat & potatoes, and some sweet wild tea. She loves the smell of their home when the wood stove is aflame, especially in the morning when grandma makes coffee, fried eggs and bacon, don’t forget the fresh roasted green chili. Wrapping it up together, with leftover potatoes, into a tortilla, where else could you find a breakfast like that?

Remembering the last Feast Day brings fond images to her minds eye. Her relatives dressed up and dancing in the plaza, the aroma of oven bread and delicious Pueblo foods being carried on the breezes. The men & women singers harmonize to the thundering drum beats, rows of people shield their eyes from the dazzling sun and occasional dust swirls due to a sudden gust of wind. Sneaking a peek at the handsome young men who are lost in the throes of dancing their hearts out to the music makes her smile. All these she treasures in her heart.

Other thoughts now fill her mind as she contemplates what to do for college education, and where? What will she do for income away from working with mom and grandma as they created the amazing pottery now famous the world over?

But she admits it’s pretty exciting to think about the numerous possibilities not available to their village except in Albuquerque or Santa Fe. Some of her friends have done it, and they seem to be fine going away and then coming back for the Feasts and “Doings”, in fact she admires their confident graceful demeanor. They keep asking when is she going with them, suggesting she go to school, learn a profession that could benefit the village then come back to share it with others. She loves that idea because she doesn’t want to lose all those things she has come to cherish so much…but can she really do it?

She looks out again at the flowing waters and birds flying below her place of solitude…and she knows.

Written by Fernando Padilla, Jr. © 1991 Padilla of San Felipe.

“Acoma’s Enchantment” is available as a fine art print, framed to 8×10 inch for $60  or  11×14 inch for $95.

Framed Sizes and Prices

8×10 $60.00 11×14 $95.00

A Song from the Heart is available as an open edition, framed to 8×10 inch for $60 or framed to 11×14 inches for $95.

Framed Sizes and Prices

8×10 $60.00 11×14 $95.00

A young man, full of questions and on a quest to find his purpose and path in life goes to the top of the mesa as many others have done before him. Only this time he does not hear anything that sounds like an answer to his pleading, upon deciding to return to the rigors of chores and duty he reluctantly descends the steep mesa to his fidgeting pony. Somewhat disappointed and feeling empty he turns his pony towards the fields he labors in, lost in thought a sudden breeze catches his attention and he hears these words within himself as audibly as someone may have spoken out in a loud whisper… “Look for It.”

Bewildered by this utterance he stops again and looks around, no one is there but his playful dog but he senses someone in fact, is there. He thinks hard about these words because it told him exactly what he came to do, to look for it; looking for the way, looking for the signs, and looking for the affirmation. That’s what he wants, the sense of confidence that he belongs, that he has purpose, and that he has inherent worth. “What am I looking for?” he asks over and over, then a rush of memories emerges foremost in his mind, he remembers something his father, who passed away a year ago, said, “When you are on the hunt and you are having trouble finding your prey, stop…sit down…and be still. Become very still, slow your breathing, slow your heartbeat, empty your thoughts and keep your eyes unfocused on any one thing but aware of everything. And when you are still long enough, the world will begin to move around you, you will see and hear things you could not otherwise, you will become aware of even the minutest of movements, then you have discovered a truth, of finding things that are there which you could not find before.”

So he dismounts and sits on a sandstone rock and waits until the insects crawl over his feet and his body twitches to move. He is determined to wait a minute more and then, the world begins to stir and move here and there. He sees something he’s not seen before, just a scratch on the underside of a large black lava rock. He explores and discovers more scratches which are actually petroglyphs carved into stone from ages past and he knows what these symbols and designs mean, someone is telling him their story. He understands also that he has been chosen to be the interpreter of these historic stories of his people, to be the faithful messenger of truths long held sacred but also long forgotten. His heart is relieved, his darkness passes, and as his spirit soars he is alive again.

Written by Fernando Padilla, Jr. © 2000 Padilla of San Felipe

Whispers form the Mesa is available as an open edition, framed to 8×10 inch for $60  or  11×14 inch for $95.

Framed Sizes and Prices

8×10 $60.00 11×14 $95.00

One of the oldest continuously inhabited locations in the United States that has been maintained without the conveniences of modern plumbing comforts. After all these past few decades a few alterations to some of the homes have naturally taken place. However, the white house in the middle is still there as it always was. What a wonderful view Creator Father had of the new world from this place of narrow mesas, right before he told the Hopis to make their home here.

This painting was created soon after Padilla moved to Oklahoma as he missed special places in the southwestern states such as Arizona. A Hopi man, Edward Setalla, married my mother, his family had always resided close to Walpi; “Butch” remembers growing up in this area and running around the mesa top as a young boy. Wagon wheel ruts of early history made way for the tires of pickups and import cars that sit in front of homes on Walpi these days.

“Walpi – First Mesa” is available as an open edition, framed to 8×10 inch for $60 or an 11×14 for $95..

Framed Sizes and Prices

8×10 $60.00 11×14 $95.00

Some of the preliminary “doings” before the dancers emerge from the kiva show the Koshares sowing blessings over the people, sacred items, and sought after outcome to the days’ celebration. The chorus of singers and drummers gather at the top of the steps as the Banner Bearer lowers the processional staff for the blessing. This is going to be a good day for all, they can feel it in their hearts.

The original of this image became part of the Richard Fleischaker collection in 1992 after being awarded Second Place-Mixed Media at Red Earth Festival 1992.

Written by Fernando Padilla, Jr. © 1992 Padilla of San Felipe.

“Blessing the Banner” is available as an open edition, framed to 8×10 inch for $60  or  11×14 inch for $95.

Framed Sizes and Prices

8×10 $60.0011×14 $95.00