Mitchell Silas has traveled the world demonstrating his sandpainting and teaching about the Native American Bahá'í traditions. Born in Shiprock, he was close to home on Sunday when he worked his magic at the Dolores Public Library.
More than 30 people had the privilege of learning from Silas as he created precise art out of colored sand.
"We have to share our traditions or they die with us," Silas said.
Sandpainting is a healing ritual in Diné culture traditionally performed by healers or medicine men. Each painting tells a story. The Navajo word for them is "iikaah" or, "a place where gods come and go." A major painting can take five to eight hours to complete, and is destroyed about 10 minutes after it has served its purpose.
Silas used white, yellow, red, black, and blue sand at his library demonstration. He painted a story. The figure he created was surrounded by a rainbow, for protection. There were feathers for prayers, spots of blue representing the clouds, and white spots depicting the seeds of the universe. In the figure's hand was a buckskin medicine bag, and nearby, a weasel. He left an open space the east because that is the direction that the holy people come from.
Silas has been a sandpainter since he was seven. He has art hanging in the Denver Art Museum's permanent collection.