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Rhiannon “Skye” Tafoya is an indigenous artist from the eastern band cherokee and santa clara pueblo tribes. Her tribal heritage and lineage are significant components that are continuously present within her artwork. Tafoya comes from a lineage of basket-weavers, both paternal and maternal, and also used to make red willow baskets with her dad, and she continues to use paper-weaving processes to honor her loved ones and ancestors. Her meticulously crafted designs, patterns, prints, and weavings are influenced by basketry and contain themes of cultural teachings, cherokee language preservation, motherhood and personal & family narratives. Tafoya creates with the intention of archiving, preserving and sharing stories, language, culture, and experiences.
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We talked about her family influence in basket weaving and how her studies in Santa Fe, then Portland, OR led to her graduate thesis, The Basket, The Body, The Book.
Tafoya worked at Women’s Studio Workshop during a residency to create Ul’nigid’, which was made to honor her maternal Grandmother (the book title represents her being and her spirit). Ul’nigid’ is a moveable book structure that takes on multiple renderings with each opening. When closed, the cover shows imagery of her grandmother along with the title illustrated in English and the Cherokee syllabary. An opening on the back cover gives the viewer a glimpse of the woven bottom of the basket that appears inside.
Ul’nigid’, Edition of 44, 2020. Published at the Women’s Studio Workshop.
Tafoya incorporates her life stories into her weavings. Contraction is about the 60+ hours of labor she endured before having an emergency c-section. The center of the weaving shows her uterus and the pattern surrounding the center represents the movement of her uterus during each contraction.
Contraction, 2021, 15.75” x 17”, colorplan papers. Photo credit: Aaron Paden
Tafoya creates prints of some of her weavings and has other work available on her website. A recent series was created during a residency as part of the Book/Print Artist/Scholar of Color Collective at Halden Bookworks in Norway.
TJB-eyes, blue, edition of 20, size: 10 7/8” x 10 5/8”, paper: Munken (polar), letterpress printed in Norway, 2023
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Skye Tafoya’s recommendations:
- Tafoya uses 270gsm acid-free Colorplan papers, which come in 50 colors, for many of her weavings.
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Visit Skye Tafoya’s website to learn more about her work, and you can find her on Instagram too.
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Music featuring excerpts of Makin’ Paper folk song by Peter Thomas. Listen to the full song and find out about other paper and book arts folk songs.
Gary A. Hanson did the sound editing for this episode. He practices and refines his skills in audio production while making his own podcast I’ll Have a Beer and Talk, a show about tech news, culture, weird animal stories and of course, beer. Gary is also the Deckle in Pulp & Deckle, a Portland-based community hand papermaking studio.
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