Dallin Maybee’s eclectic art – like these beaded children’s books written and illustrated on antique ledger paper – will be shown at the Heard Museum Guild Indian Fair and Market on March 6-7.

ARTIST OF THE MONTH

If you had to define Dallin Maybee, you could call him a ledger-beader-author-carver-painter-jeweler-fashion designer. Or, as he suggests, “Maybe just artist.” The 35-year-old Arizona State University law student won Best of Show at the Santa Fe Indian Market in 2007 for children’s books that he wrote and illustrated on antique ledger paper, then covered in beading and embellished with brass tack and dyed horsehair.

At the Heard Museum Guild Indian Fair and Market this March 6-7, he’ll debut a beaded children’s book and an array of ledger art. Ledger art is the Plains Indian tradition of drawing narrative pictures on lined accounting paper – the only canvas they could find in the 1800s. Naturally, Maybee mixes up the medium, using not only ledger paper but antique railroad paper, 17th century Asian rice paper and pages from the Bible.

“I try to contemporize some of the traditional art forms,” Maybee says. “There’s a lot of value in our tradition, but it must go hand in hand with the evolution of our culture.”

Maybee’s art has evolved since he started as an intertribal dancer touring the world and creating his own beaded costumes. He’s since incorporated beading into accessories, jewelry, dolls and animal carvings, and wants to branch out into painting.

“A lot of people want to pigeonhole Indian art into just traditional art forms,” Maybee says. “I’ve tried to explain that there’s just as much fine art as some of the classic masters.”