A Visit With Michael Naranjo – Nov/Dec 1999

During my travels this fall, I had the happy chance to meet and talk to the Native American artist, Michael Naranjo, who has continued to sculpt even after becoming blind.

Many of you have seen the video that the NWSSA has in its library, of the work and life of Michael Naranjo, and if you have not, ask Vic Picou about borrowing it. I will recap his story here. Michael has always known that he would sculpt. He was not aware that it would be his career. He went to Vietnam as a solider and was blinded in combat.

On returning to his home in New Mexico he began again to sculpt in clay until a friend introduced him to wax. He was taken by the relative stability of the material. He eventually tried his hand at stone, this being another stable medium. He went to Italy and was allowed an audience with the Pope, who gave his permission for Michael to touch both the Pieta and the David. The scenes of this are in the video and are very moving.

I met Michael at the Santa Fe gallery that bears his name, the Moxley-Ross Naranjo Gallery, and was immediately taken by his charm and art. Michael Naranjo is a man of medium height who appears to be taller due to his slim physique and quiet, but powerful, presence. I was greeted by his wife, Laurie, and introduced as the one who called some years earlier regarding the Alternative Vision Show, which I put on for the NWSSA and had wished him to judge. He had to decline because of. previous commitments. However, he did remember the call and we spoke of the show and how the artists and the public had received it.

Michael is not doing any stone carving at present as he is having medical difficulties that have limited his ability to work with power tools. He is interested in getting back to stone eventually, but for now he has returned to wax and bronze.

Michael works mostly with the human figure, as this is where his strongest memories are. He was raised in the pueblo and surrounded by the sights and sound of his people. These are his strongest visions, with the scenes of the festivals with their dancing and movement leaving the strongest impressions, thereby being the most readily recalled. Because of that, the images of the Native Americans of the Southwest dominate his work. I was swept away by a life-sized native dancer in the costume of an eagle that graced the entrance of the gallery. The energy and life that radiated from it drew me into the dance. I could almost hear the drums and chants and smell the fire.

While we were talking, he spoke of the problems that he experienced when attempting subject matter that he was less familiar with than the human figure. He recently had done a buffalo and realized that he had not been as observant as a young person as he would have liked and his memory was missing many details, which he found frustrating. Having a similar experience with a trout, he decided, finally, that he need to touch a rainbow trout to fill in his missing knowledge. So, when one of the local priests offered to take him fishing he jumped at the chance. By the end of the day he feared that there would be no trout for him to handle, but in the end he caught an 18″ trout, almost jumping into the river, as he feared he would lose it in the last moments.

It had been 30 years since he had seen a fish and he was amazed at the proportions and details that he had never noticed in his youth. The finished piece leaps from its base with every fin in its place. All of Michael’s works have a supple, sinuous feel to them. They all seem to dance with energy and a life of their own.

Michael has been involved with the gallery for a year and half and is awed at the time and energy that is required, even though his part was to have been as a silent partner. It has brought home to him how fortunate he is to have had a wife so willing to take on that part of his career. Michael and Laurie are interested in visiting Seattle and the Northwest, and I have encouraged him to contact the Association when he comes. I am sure that you would be happy to show them the sights and sounds of our comer of the world.