WEBVTT

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And I'll end with one
of my favorite pieces.

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I was working on
this book, but I

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wanted to give Simon
Ortiz something good

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for the-- he was guest editing,
did guest edit last winter,

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not this past winter,
but the winter before,

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the Kenyon Review, an Indigenous
writers special issue.

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And so I'd been working
with this material,

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and I knew that it was going
to go into Turquoise Ledge,

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but I got it all polished up
for Simon and gave it to him.

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And I had made--

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well, I've started working.

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I never gave up on
being a visual artist.

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That was what I
always wanted to do.

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I didn't set out to be a writer.

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I wanted to be a visual artist.

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I got very discouraged very fast
by the University of New Mexico

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art department.

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They were very old
fashioned in those days

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and they didn't
even want to admit

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that there was such a thing as
Jackson Pollock I don't think,

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much less Indigenous art.

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And so I saw that they were
going to flunk me out anyway.

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But I never stopped.

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So I went over into
the English department.

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And they were a little
more enlightened.

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But I never gave up on it.

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So when I was
working on this book,

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I decided that once you reached
the age, you get around 60,

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you better quit
putting things off.

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You don't know.

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And so I had started
doing a lot of artwork.

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And so this piece that
I worked out for Simon

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came out of this, me doing
artwork and also my poor garden

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that I have.

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Because you can't get anything
to grow in the ground.

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The indigenous things come
and steal the water and food.

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So everything has to
be in a flower pot.

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So I have sort of a garden made
of mismatched pots and things.

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And so this is the story here.

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At the end of September,
the heat began to recede

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and a rainstorm
revived my garden.

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The pink and the white
rain lilies bloomed,

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and I kept watering
them after the rain left

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for the bees and the
butterflies and for me.

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One morning as I watered, I
saw two large grasshoppers,

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amazing in their
beauty and their size.

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Their outer wings were
emerald green in the center

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with peacock green
along the edges.

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The inner wings were hues of
magenta red and magenta pink

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with lacy leaf patterns
in bright yellow.

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Their faces and
necks were outlined

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in bright yellow on jade
green and their antennae

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were bright orange with
bold black stripes.

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They sat in the cluster
of pink rain lily blossoms

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they'd been eating.

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They regarded me fearlessly,
with great majesty.

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Their bright black eyes
looked intently into mine.

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As soon as I saw them, I wanted
to sketch the grasshoppers

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in colored pencil, but
I was busy and went off

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to do other chores.

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I worked on the manuscript.

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I forgot about the grasshoppers.

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The next day, I found one
of the big grasshoppers

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under the potted fig tree.

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He walked unsteadily
as if drunk or sick.

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His antennae moved feebly, but
he didn't seem afraid of me.

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I picked him up
carefully and moved him

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so he wouldn't drown when
I watered the fig tree.

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I wondered what had happened.

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Poison?

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I wondered about that,
because I don't use poison.

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But then I remembered, his life
was the length of a summer.

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He was dying of old age.

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Still, he was arresting
in his beauty,

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and his steady gaze
connected with mine.

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The vivid colors and
intricate markings

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were unlike any I'd ever seen.

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I left him in the rain
lilies to die in peace.

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The next morning I found the
grasshopper in the rain lily

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leaves, dead some might say,
because he didn't move anymore.

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But he was still
brightly colored,

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so there was life in him yet.

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I gently picked him up and
brought him into my studio.

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I needed to hold him
in place somehow.

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All I had was a shot
glass where I stood him up

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so I could see his
thorax plainly.

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As I sketched him, I
realized he wanted a portrait

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in the manner of the star
being portraits I painted.

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Earlier in The Turquoise Ledge
I explain about these star

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being portraits.

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Very intimidating, these star
beings and their portraits.

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I realized he wanted a portrait
in the manner of the star

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being portraits I painted.

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Later after I finished
the grasshopper sketch,

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I brought out a big canvas like
the ones I'd used for the star

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being portraits and I prepared
the canvas with stucco

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and left it to dry.

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I was thinking about how
to paint the grasshopper

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face on in the manner
of the star beings.

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It presented a
difficulty because

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of the shape of the
grasshopper's head,

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so I didn't work
on the portrait.

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A few days later
while I was outside

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to watch the rain clouds gather
from a hurricane in Mexico,

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I noticed another of the
big colorful grasshoppers

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under the Mesquite tree
by the front porch.

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It looked me in the
eyes and I knew it

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once that this grasshopper was
a messenger from Lord Chapolin.

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Get back to work.

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And the word chapolin is the
Nahuatl word for grasshopper.

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And when I was growing
up around Laguna,

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the Spanish speaking people,
[NON-ENGLSH SPEECH] North

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of Laguna, that's what they
called grasshoppers, chapolin.

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And I even tried to
look it up to see

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if in Spain, the
Spanish Spanish,

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had a word for grasshopper.

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But it seems like in the new
world, chapolin is the term.

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It was a messenger
from Lord Chapolin.

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Get back to work.

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I thought a profile was
attempting variation

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from the portraits I'd done.

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So I got out my sketchbook
and colored pencils

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to attempt to sketch
in profile, but I just

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couldn't get it right.

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Chapolin didn't want
a portrait in profile.

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He wanted his portrait
face on, like the portraits

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of the star beings.

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I had to work a while to get
the face on pose to look right.

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At first I drew the eyes on
the sides of the grasshopper's

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head, but this was incorrect.

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The eyes were more to
the front of the face.

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As I sketched, I
understood Chapolin

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wanted to be seen and remembered
as he was on the big fiesta day

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in August, when there were
so many good things to eat

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and he celebrated by wearing
powdered turquoise all

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over his head and
face out of regard

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for Tlaloc, Lord of the Rain,
whose color is turquoise.

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I relied on my
colored pencil sketch

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to draw the outline
of Chapolin's portrait

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on the canvas.

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In the sketch, his buckskin
leggings and moccasins

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could be seen.

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But on the canvas, only his
head, chest, and waist fit.

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I was pleased with
the work I'd done,

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so I left the portrait
for the rest of the week

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while I worked on
the manuscript.

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Another week or two passed.

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One day I noticed one
of the big painted

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grasshoppers on a datura plant
outside my studio window.

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The grasshopper gazed in
at Lord Chapolin's portrait

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on the easel.

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I felt uneasy, because I'd
done no work on the portrait

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for a long time.

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Then one morning
outside my studio

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under the Mesquite tree, Lord
Chapolin himself approached me.

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He came straight toward
me and climbed up

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from the ground to a sandstone
bench to get closer to me.

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He regarded me gravely
and remained motionless

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on the sandstone while I
looked at the hues of green,

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the magenta pinks and reds, and
the black and orange markings

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so I'd get them right
when I painted him.

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Then he lost interest in
me and turned his attention

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to the rain lilies that
stirred in the breeze.

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A day or two later
as I watered, I

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splashed a pot of purple
elysium and suddenly there

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was Lord Chapolin,
indignant and glaring at me.

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Forget about your writing.

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Complete my portrait.

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That night when I went
a plug in the lights

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under my car to ward
off the pack rats,

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in the beam of the
flashlight I saw

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a team of brown ants
struggling to carry

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a dead grasshopper that
resembled the others,

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but this one was much smaller
with lighter yellow green

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hues on the outer wings and
light pink on the inner wings.

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The grasshoppers wouldn't
last much longer.

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The next morning, I hurried
back to the portrait

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before I forgot the pink
hue, and I repainted

00:10:07.610 --> 00:10:10.550 align:middle line:84%
the dark magenta on the
portrait's inner wings

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with a lighter magenta pink.

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The effect was a rosy magenta.

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Perfect.

00:10:16.970 --> 00:10:20.000 align:middle line:90%
Exactly what Chapolin desired.

00:10:20.000 --> 00:10:24.410 align:middle line:84%
I knew what Chapolin desired
because he communicated

00:10:24.410 --> 00:10:27.710 align:middle line:84%
with certain thoughts
that would cross my mind,

00:10:27.710 --> 00:10:30.860 align:middle line:84%
thoughts about what he
wanted for his portrait,

00:10:30.860 --> 00:10:34.070 align:middle line:90%
thoughts he sent directly to me.

00:10:34.070 --> 00:10:37.190 align:middle line:84%
At one point, I whited out
a lot of dark green color

00:10:37.190 --> 00:10:41.120 align:middle line:84%
I didn't like and Chapolin's
portrait looked ghostly

00:10:41.120 --> 00:10:44.090 align:middle line:84%
and I called it
ghost grasshopper.

00:10:44.090 --> 00:10:46.430 align:middle line:84%
But I couldn't
leave it that way.

00:10:46.430 --> 00:10:51.440 align:middle line:84%
Chapolin wanted to be portrayed
as he was in life, not death.

00:10:51.440 --> 00:10:53.690 align:middle line:84%
Still, the
grasshopper figure all

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in white on the red
background looked really cool.

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Lord Chapolin is
secretive and mysterious.

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Those of his kind may
appear only once in 84 years

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while others return in
cycles of 7 or 21 years.

00:11:10.830 --> 00:11:12.830 align:middle line:84%
When the portrait
was finally completed

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in the last week of October,
I opened the front door

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one morning and
there was Chapolin,

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warming himself in the
sunlight on the top branches

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of the greasewood bush that
faced the studio window where

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his portrait sat.

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I watched him for a
while to figure out

00:11:30.740 --> 00:11:34.550 align:middle line:84%
whether he liked the portrait,
but I couldn't be sure.

00:11:34.550 --> 00:11:38.930 align:middle line:84%
So I turned back to paint the
white flowers on his belt.

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As I touched up the
green on the wings,

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I felt such happiness
and pleasure.

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Later when I looked
out, he was gone.

00:11:49.460 --> 00:11:53.210 align:middle line:84%
I watched for Chapolin and
the others whenever I watered.

00:11:53.210 --> 00:11:56.010 align:middle line:84%
I even looked for
dead grasshoppers,

00:11:56.010 --> 00:12:01.280 align:middle line:84%
but they all were gone without a
trace, carried off by the ants,

00:12:01.280 --> 00:12:04.580 align:middle line:90%
scattered by the wind.

00:12:04.580 --> 00:12:07.830 align:middle line:90%
So that'll complete it.

00:12:07.830 --> 00:12:08.960 align:middle line:90%
Thank you for leaving--

00:12:08.960 --> 00:12:10.550 align:middle line:90%
I mean, for listening.

00:12:10.550 --> 00:12:11.600 align:middle line:90%
For not leaving.

00:12:11.600 --> 00:12:13.100 align:middle line:90%
[APPLAUSE]

00:12:13.100 --> 00:12:16.100 align:middle line:90%


00:12:16.100 --> 00:12:17.650 align:middle line:90%
Thank you.

00:12:17.650 --> 00:12:23.000 align:middle line:90%