Milland Lomakema, Hopi Pueblo Painter

Award winning artist Milland Lomakema was a member of the Artist Hopid, a group organized in 1973 by Hopi Pueblo artists Michael Kabotie, Terrance Talaswaima, and Neil David, Sr. The objectives of the group were to use Hopi art to instill pride and identity, to educate the world to the aesthetic and cultural values of the Hopi, to develop new ideas in Hopi art, to control the aesthetic for Hopi art, and to document Hopi history through the visual arts.

Milland Lomakema (1941-2021) Dawakema was a self-taught artist with no formal training in the arts although he attended several schools over the years. In the late 1950s, he traveled with an education tour group throughout the east coast of the United States and Canada. In the mid-1960s, he worked with a detective agency in Phoenix, then he joined the Hopi police force in 1968, during which time he devoted most of his spare time to painting.

Milland Lomakema won first place in the Heard Museum's National Indian Art Show in 1968 for one of his paintings. Then in 1969, he won additional prizes for his art and more prizes in 1970.

Milland Lomakema passed away on March 24, 2021, in Polacca, Arizona.

Biographical Source:  Hopi Painting: the World of the Hopis by Patricia Janis Broder.

TAGS: Hopi Pueblo, Michael Kabotie, Terrance Talaswaima, Neil David, Sr., Native American Painting