Original Painting “Feather Dance” by Harrison Begay

Feather Dance is an original painting by Harrison Begay (1917-2012) Haskay Yahne Yah (The Wandering Boy).  It is a deeply spiritual and visually elegant portrayal of one of the most meaningful ceremonies in Navajo culture. Painted in acrylic on a bluish grey matboard, the composition reflects Begay's signature style — gentle, rhythmic, and quietly powerful — capturing the essence of the Navajo Feather Dance, a traditional healing and blessing ritual performed to restore harmony and balance.

At the heart of this ceremony is the mystical image of a feather dancing — a moment believed to be guided by unseen forces, symbolizing prayers lifted to the Holy People. In this work, Begay represents the event with profound subtlety: a soft pillar of sprayed white pigment rises between the basket drum and the basket containing the feather, giving form to the sacred energy that binds earth and spirit.

Framing this central moment are two Yei figures — spiritual beings who serve as messengers between the human world and the divine — set against clouds. In between them, a radiant symbol of the sun appears not in its traditional form, but as a buffalo, blending two powerful sources of life and abundance into one unified image. This imaginative vision of the sun-as-buffalo is a poetic device that underscores the gratitude, reverence, and spiritual resonance of the Feather Dance.

The painting is signed Haskay Yahne Yah in the lower left and Harrison Begay in the lower right, and while it is undated, it is skillfully framed to preserve both the surface and soul of the piece.

Condition: excellent condition

Provenance: This Original Painting "Feather Dance" by Harrison Begay is from a collector in Rio Rancho, NM.

Recommended Reading: Indian Art: The Dorothy Dunn Collection of Native American Paintings, published in El Palacio, Winter 1977

TAGS: Navajo Nation, Native American Paintings, Harrison Begay