Clearly Indigenous Audio Exhibition
Grandmother’s Legacy Series
Grandmother’s Legacy Series, 2019, Carol Lujan (American, Diné, b. 1944), 12 x 14 1/2 x 1 in. (30.5 x 36.8 x 2.5 cm), fused glass, Collection of the artist, L10.2023:38
Grandmother’s Legacy Series, 2018, Carol Lujan (American, Diné, b. 1944), 12 x 14 1/2 x 1 1/2 in. (30.5 x 36.8 x 3.8 cm), fused glass, Collection of the artist, L10.2023:39
Verbal Description
Hello, I’m Carrie Atkins Maras, the museum’s associate director for community engagement. I will be sharing a description of two works from Carol Lujan’s Grandmother’s Legacy Series, created in 2018 and 2019, and displayed in Clearly Indigenous: Native Visions Reimagined in Glass.
These works from Carol Lujan’s Grandmother’s Legacy Series, were made in fused glass in 2018 and 2019. Carol Lujan is a Diné artist. She was born in 1944. The works are from the collection of the artist.
The two Grandmother’s Legacy Series works are made of fused glass and are displayed together with another object in a case.
The artwork crafted in 2019, shown in the left side of the case, measures 12 inches tall, 14 and one-half inches wide, and one inch deep or 30.5 centimeters tall, 36.8 centimeters wide, and 3.8 centimeters deep. This three-dimensional object looks like a woven blanket. Moving from left to right, the left half of the work is red with a broad vertical band decorated with a series of blue and purple crosses and bordered by two black lines. Moving toward the center, a series of blue triangles, with points to the left, create a dividing line. A center band of gold, purple, and blue separates the halves. Next, a row of red triangles, pointing to the right, start the right side of the work—on this side, the gold color shifts to purple and then to blue. Three thin vertical lines decorate the purple zone. The right edge mimics the left, including two red bands bordering a row of crosses in the same color.
The companion object, created in 2018, shown on the right side of the case, measures 12 inches tall, 14 and one-half inches wide, and one and one-half inches deep, or 30.5 centimeters tall, 36.8 centimeters wide, and 3.8 centimeters deep. This form is also rectangular and looks like a woven blanket. The predominant color of this work is a deep cranberry red with scattered multi-colored speckles. Moving from the edges into the center, three black T-shaped forms surrounded by white are equally spaced along the top and bottom edges. As we move toward the center, this is followed by a broad white band decorated with thin and thick black and blue lines. In the center, a square is outlined in white and black with four blue rectangles on the top and bottom. Inside this motif, a peach-colored rectangle with a blue center and blue lines on each long side is on a red ground. Towards the edge of the work, the artist has repeated the T-shaped forms, one on each side.
Label Audio
Hello, I’m Carrie Atkins Maras, the museum’s associate director for community engagement. I will be sharing the label for the two works, Grandmother’s Legacy Series, from 2018 and 2019, by Carol Lujan in Clearly Indigenous: Native Visions Reimagined in Glass.
These works from Carol Lujan’s Grandmother’s Legacy Series, were made in fused glass in 2018 and 2019. Carol Lujan is a Diné artist. She was born in 1944. The works are from the collection of the artist.
Diné (Navajo) rugs and blankets are woven from wool on horizontal looms. Using designs from her grandmother’s weavings, Carol Lujan created a series of “rugs” in glass. She fuses dichroic and opalescent glass with glass stringers and frit to create the designs, which are then slumped in clay molds.
Dichroic glass is a type of glass that is one color when seen by reflected light and another color when light shines through it. Opalescent glass changes colors like an opal. Stringers are thin filaments of glass, and frit is a type of powdered glass.