Annie Antone (born 1955) is a Native American Tohono O'odham basket weaving from Gila Bend, Arizona.
Background
Annie Antone was born in Tucson, Arizona in 1955. She learned how to weave
from her mother,
[McFadden and Taubman, 219] Irene Antone. Annie began at the age of 19 and sold her first basket for $10. She gave the money to her mother.
[Krol, Debra Utacia. The Art of Basketry: Weaving New Life into Old Forms. Native Peoples Magazine. 29 Dec 2005. (retrieved 21 April 2009)] Currently she lives on the
Gila Bend Reservation.
[Greene, 44]
Basketry
Antone only uses plant materials harvested from her homeland, the
Sonoran Desert. These include
yucca, devil's claw, and
bear grass.
Her techniques in making coiled baskets are traditional, but her designs are completely unique. She specializes in highly graphic, pictorial imagery and has featured realistic images of
Panthera and semi-tractor trailers. She wove a basket featuring the traditional flute player, surrounded by musical notes forming a specific song.
[ This piece is on display in the Native American art collection of the Casino Arizona. The curator there, Aleta Rinlero says of Antone's work: "She doesn't weave baskets, she weaves concepts."][Gonzalez, Nathan. Art at Casino Arizona is a cultural jackpot. Arizona Republic. 9 June 2008 (retrieved 22 April 2009)]
Ancient Hohokam pottery designs also provide Antone with inspiration for basket designs, as have the flora and fauna of the Sonoran Desert. To achieve her complex designs, she carefully sketches them out before weaving.[Wertikin and Kogan, 339]
She has exhibited throughout the country, as well as the British Museum, and won awards at the Heard Museum Guild Indian Fair and Market, Red Earth, Gallup Ceremonial, the O'odham Tash Rodeo and Fair, and the Santa Fe Indian Market.[ 2006 Awards Winners. SWAIA. (retrieved 22 April 2009)][ 2004 Award Winners. SWAIA. (retrieved 22 April 2009)] She was first invited to exhibit and demonstrate basketry at the National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. in 1992[Greene, 42] and has been invited back by the National Museum of the American Indian many times.
See also
-
List of Native American artists
-
Visual arts by indigenous peoples of the Americas
Notes
-
Greene, Jacqueline Dembar. The Tohono O'odham. London: Franklin Watts, 1998. .
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McFadden, David Revere and Ellen Napiura Taubman. Changing Hands: Art without Reservation 1: Contemporary Native North American Art from the Southwest. New York: Museum of Arts and Design, 2002. .
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Wertikin, Gerard and Lee Kogan. Encyclopedia of American Folk Art. New York: Routledge, 2003. .
