PUEBLO JEWELRY ARTIST GAIL BIRD BORN
Born in 1949 at Oakland, California (CA), Gail’s father & mother were from the Santo Domingo and Laguna Pueblos, respectively. Bird studied at University of CA Berkeley and University of Colorado at Boulder before making jewelry in 1972 in collaboration with Navajo jeweler Yazzie Johnson whom she’d known since their teens. Self-taught, they learned by study, experimentation, and examination of older jewelry in museums. With a scholarship from the Southwestern Association for Indian Arts, Bird & Johnson explored the Southwest and began using a material found in early jewelry and a wide range of exotic stones. In 1981, they won Best of Show at the Santa Fe Indian Market. In 2007, their work was the subject of Shared Images: The Innovative Jewelry of Yazzie Johnson and Gail Bird by Diana F. Pardue. Their jewelry can be found in the: British Museum; Museum of Arts and Design; National Museum of Scotland; Heard Museum; and Smithsonian Institution. Gail and Yazzie still work in New Mexico.
Sources:
“Native Jewelry Makers- Yazzie Johnson and Gail Bird, Navajo/ Laguna,” Native Jewelry & Art. Retrieved 11/23/2022, Native Jewelry Makers- Yazzie Johnson and Gail Bird, Navajo/ Laguna (nativejewelrylit.com)
“Yazzie Johnson & Gail Bird,” Martha Hopkins Struever. Retrieved 11/23/2022, Yazzie Johnson & Gail Bird (marthastruever.com)
Wikipedia
Photo: Schmiebel, 8/20/1979. Permissive Use pursuant to Creative Commons license.
Indigenous America Calendar 