Sep. 6--FARMINGTON -- The dark, sometimes abstract art by

29-year-old Hardis Yazzie sets itself apart from the nearby tables of glimmering jewelry.

A blue and green spray-painted canvas, "No Time to Smile," was inspired by an old black-and-white photo of a frowning American Indian man. Red, yellow and black lines zig-zag down an adjacent graffiti painting.

"I worked hard to separate myself visually" from other artists, said Yazzie, of Kirtland.

Yazzie is one of several young artists at this weekend's 21st annual Totah Festival Indian Market and Powwow, whose art market is devoted to emerging artists. In addition to a Navajo rug auction, powwow and a rug weaving demonstration, the festival includes more than 100 booths where art is sold inside the Farmington Civic Center.

Among the ranks of American Indian artists were those in their 20s whose talent was displayed in works ranging from colorful street art, stone carvings and paintings to educational Navajo rug art.

Michael Gleason, of Farmington, was selling his Texas limestone and Red Valley sandstone from Arizona. This was the 21-year-old's third Totah Festival.

Smooth limestone bears, a red sandstone eagle and carved rock people sat on Gleason's table. Gleason has carved rocks, which he collects from canyon walls himself, since he was 8.

"Most everybody here that has sculptures is older than me," he said.

His father and several local artists taught him. He carves for a living, but he also

enjoys it as a hobby.

Farmington resident Sophia Lewis, 26, makes charts that explain what plants are used to make natural dyes in Navajo rugs. Dried plants such as sunflowers, sumac berries and red onion skin are framed against a background of white wool.

Labels list the names of the plants in English and Navajo and yarns connected to the plants extend to a tiny Navajo rug in the artwork's center.

"We just want to show the public what plants make the rugs," she said.

She and her mother, Christine Lewis, collect the plants from the Southwest and make their own pieces, but Sophia Lewis eventually will only make them when her mother retires.

Saturday was the first time Sophia Lewis' work was in the festival, but her mother has participated since the late 1990s. They also create framed medicinal plant charts.

Jason Kinlecheenie, a Farmington resident who calls his work "tribal street art," said the Totah Festival helps with name recognition.

Kinlecheenie, 29, learned graffiti art by practicing on paper when he was 12. He illegally spray-painted box cars and building walls from Florida to California in the past, but now he sticks to canvas, using acrylic, paint markers and spray-paint.

He sold four of his pieces by Saturday afternoon, two more than last year's festival, he said.

Roderrell Charley, of Chinle, Ariz., has participated in the Totah Festival twice to sell his rock paintings of pottery and cliff dwellings.

The 21-year-old, who has done the paintings on white slate for four years, often can be found at Canyon de Chelley National Monument, he said.

"We sell our stuff in the Canyon," he said.

Steve Lynn: slynn@daily-times.com

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