Lawrence Acadiz
Squash
9" total
height
This figure, the Squash or
Patung kachina is a favorite among many collectors and appears
primarily on First Mesa as a runner. It is thought that he may
have derived from Zuni. Here is is depicted with flowers in both
hands, but generally appears with a set of yucca whips in one
hand.
As a "runner," the
Patung belongs to a class of kachinas who are not dancers but
rather run races with the men and boys of the village. "They
come in the late spring, either as a group or as individuals,
during a pause in a Mixed Dance or Plaza Dance.
Usually they will select one
end of the Plaza and , assembling there, will endeavor to have
an individual race them. If there are many runners, or Wawarus,
there will be a great churning about with one or another racing
down the length of the Plaza and other prancing up and down to
ready themselves for the coming contest.
Quite often they will lure
some unwary clown into racing and will immediately catch the
hapless individual and perpetrate their peculiar form of punishment
on him. They quickly tire of this and will gesture or hold up
a reward to some young man in the crowd of bystanders.
If he accepts, they will allow
him about ten feet of space in which he can move about as he
pleases. But the minute he leaves the area he runs as if instant
disaster were behind him, and it usually is, for some of the
punishments are quite unpleasant.
Win or lose, he will receive
payment with some kind of food from these racers. No one is safe
from the oldest man to the youngest boy; all, including white
members of the audience can receive the attention of these kachinas.
The kachinas are expected to pay for whipping the young men,
and this they do by sending water when it is needed for germinating
the crops."
- Barton Wright, Kachinas: a Hopi
Artist's Documentary (218)
Born in Tucson and a member
of the Deer and Katsina clans of the Hopi tribe, Lawrence Acadiz
showed talent at an early age. He was one of the first students
in elementary school to be selected to the Gifted and Talented
Educational Program (GATE). In his freshman year of high school
he chose to leave the GATE program to attend Cholla High School.
Lawrence then attended the prestigious Institute of American
Indian Art in Santa Fe, New Mexico where he formally studied
painting. It was there, with the influence of his roommate, that
he began carving in 1984.
Lawrence comes from a line
of well-known artists. His great-grandmother, Ella Soomah, is
a renowned potter. His great-grandfather, Fritz Soomah, is a
katsina doll carver and the one who gave Lawrence his first Hopi
name—"Chutima," which means cottontail jumping
and reflects Lawrence’s high energy level. His grandmother,
Amelia Martin, was a potter, and his great-uncles Guy and Alfred
Fritz, and uncles Lorenzo and Johnny Martin, are also well-known
katsina doll carvers.
Lawrence has won honors at
Santa Fe, Gallup, the Heard and many other markets. In 2005 he
was the featured artist at the Arizona State Museum’s Southwest
Indian Art Fair. He makes his home in Tucson with his wife and
two daughters. He returns often to First Mesa for ceremonies
and to harvest cottonwood root, the traditional medium for katsina
dolls.
