Polychrome Vase (#43)
Begay was an exceptionally talented potter, combining his Navajo and Hopi heritage with his expansive creativity and curiosity about materials, form, and design. He has used Hopi clay and paint to form this vessel, although it is a classic Navajo cooking pot shape. The painting is well balanced and uses imagery from Navajo culture, including the central corn motifs with halos of feathers rising over them. Begay alternates the corn with medicine rattles animated with faces. Taken as a whole the cooking pot and painting suggests a continuous song for fertility and life.