Image Not Available

Shonto Begay

born 1954 Shonto, Arizona

BiographyBorn in a Hogan, Shonto grew up herding sheep in sheep in Kletha Valley in Shonto, Arizona. One of 16 children, his mother is a traditional Navajo rug weaver from the Bitter Water Clan, and his father was a medicine man born to the Salt Clan. Shonto began professionally writing, illustrating, and painting in 1983. He is represented in numerous museums and fine-art galleries and has written and illustrated several books for Scholastic and Random House publishers. Shonto artwork was featured in solo exhibits at the Wheelwright Museum of the American Indian in Santa Fe, the Museum of Northern Arizona, Arizona State Museum, Utah Museum of Fine Arts, the American Indian Contemporary Arts Museum, the National Museum of Wildlife Art, the Booth Western Art Museum, and the Phoenix Art Museum. Shonto attended Bureau of Indian Affairs boarding schools on the Navajo reservation and high school in Kayenta, Arizona. He received an Associates of Fine Art degree at the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe, and a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from California College of Arts and Crafts. He worked in the 1980s as a National Park Service ranger at Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming and Navajo National Monument in Arizona. In 2017, became an Artist in Residence at Northern Arizona University.

Person TypeIndividual