What do you get when you combine a ken doll, some sharpies, maybe a little tempra paint, a small dancing mud kachina that looks like a bear, and an intricately carved to scale wooden three wheeled motorcycle?
This, apparently.
Thank my dad for this one--he was driving through Vista, CA on his way home from jury duty and spotted "The Indian Store," a behemoth of a building that he'd never come across in 25+ years of living in San Diego. He got home and googled, and of course, this would be the representative image he chose to send me. I mean, how can you pass this up?
If you're interested in purchasing this here piece that I've named "Pueblo Clown Goes to Sturgis", it can be yours for the low, low price of $7000. I'm not kidding. Does it have to be mentioned the artist is non-Native? Cause he is. Duh. The site also shows him carving a "Native American style totem pole." Awesome.
Or, you can send me $7000 and I'll go to Target, buy the aforementioned ingredients, substitute the carved wooden trike for a plastic action figure one, and you get an "authentic Indian craft!"
Questions I have in viewing this piece:
- Is he wearing an eyepatch?
- Does he have sharpie 5'oclock shadow?
- Is he wearing a chocolate old-fashioned donut on his head?
- Is he scratching his behind?
- Why doesn't his friend sit down in the comfortable-looking back seat? Isn't dancing on a moving vehicle dangerous?
All joking and WTF-ing aside, this guy is making "art" pieces that include sacred pueblo kachinas, and is making a mess of them. Talk about appropriation and mis-representation. Not cool.
But if you'd like to support a real Indian artist and place an order for my version of "Painted Ken Goes to Sturgis"--let me know in the comments. ha.
(Thanks Dad!)