About the Artist

Ruth Watchman was described as follows in Dorothy Dunn's book American Indian Painting: "Ruth Watchman was a research technician in design. She seemed to care little for painting the pictorial aspects of Navajo life, but set fo rherself the task of stying the patterns of the sandpaintings and of creating a technique whereby characteristic elements of these fleeting designs might be permanently captured. She worked with plaster and sand and true earth pigments until she admirably achieved her purpose. Her paintings were miniature sandpaintings, authentic in design, color and texture."