Two Flowers – Pop and Pansy
Two flowers, Pop and Pansy, became friends. They lived between worlds. Both had some kind of ambiguous Swiss heritage. One had a father from Taos Pueblo and the other was adopted by the Native Americans of Pine Ridge. They loved and lost in both the white and Native worlds. Because they were women, they had one name as an artist and another name that started with “Mrs.” and ended with “in private life.” One was born Pansy RePass on March 31, 1895 in El Dorado Springs, Missouri, and much later, in 1936, given the Lakota name Wanashta Wastaywin meaning “Flower that Beautifies the Earth.” The other was born Merina Lujan in Castle Gate, Utah on March 20, 1906 and she was given the Tiwa name Pop Chalee meaning “Blue Flower,” with “Pop” meaning “Flower,” and “Chalee” meaning “Blue.” They were nomadic, but kept coming back to Santa Fe, and lived right across the street from each other on Acequia Madre for periods of time. They were singers: one sang pueblo lullabies and the other in the style of Mae West. They both looked really tired after they became famous. As older adults, they were revered artists from Santa Fe, forging their way in a profession that favored men at the time. They made friends easily with Hollywood celebrities such as Errol Flynn and Jimmy Stewart. Both befriended the conductor Leopold Stokowski and hosted visitors from as far away as Palestine and Hungary. And both were unwavering in speaking about Native American customs and ways of living in an effort to educate everyone they could about the beauty and close-to-earth living of the First Americans.
Under five feet in height with long hair and bangs and two waist-length braids, the artist Pop Chalee had an enchanting quiet elegance that was unearthly, so enchanting that newspaper articles would dream she was of Hindu Indian heritage or even a Native American princess, but neither was technically true. Pop’s father grew up in Taos Pueblo and his brother was Tony Lujan, the famous husband of the artist socialite Mabel Dodge Luhan. Pop’s parents divorced when she was young, so Pop moved back and forth between the Native and white worlds, often spending summers in Taos Pueblo. She spent part of her teen years unsuccessfully vying for the approval of her Mormon mother.
At a young age, she married a Mormon wood and metal craftsman and began having a family. Her son Jack was born when she was eighteen and she was twenty when she had her daughter Betty.
She didn’t even consider becoming an artist until she was nearly thirty.
“I’d always been kind of funny,” Chalee said of her growing up, “I never did anything right. I’d try different things like dancing and couldn’t make it. But when I got into the art, I just stuck to it until I finally developed myself, then it just kind of opened the gates and I went on.” (Cesa, 1997.)
In 1935, Pop went to the Santa Fe Indian School to study art with Dorothy Dunn. Pop was older than the other students and often the only woman, so it was not an easy start back to school. However, she had a single-minded focus to become an artist and so she did.
As she began to show her work, Pop caught the attention of art enthusiasts with her stylized elegance and sense of motion. Her son said that she would use a single hair of a brush to paint the fine lines.
At the time, some said that her work imitated the drawing style of Walt Disney’s movie Bambi. When Pop Chalee heard this, she responded that Walt Disney purchased one of her works long before drawing began for Bambi, indicating that the imitation went the other way around. Her grandson, Jack Cruz Hopkins, remembered that Pop Chalee was a special guest of Walt Disney when Disneyland first opened. His parents got to attend as well, but, not sure what this new Disneyland would be like, they left five-year-old Jack at home.
Sometime in the mid-1940s, Howard Hughes became interested in Pop’s work and wanted to commission her to create murals for the Albuquerque Airport, which didn’t turn out to be an easy thing to arrange. Pop and her husband Otis were working under the tight security of Los Alamos at the time. Otis was a machinist and she was a dorm matron. When asked if she knew any secrets from Los Alamos, Pop laughed, “No way, honey, I didn’t even know what they were doing, just that it was something important. Oppenheimer used to go horseback riding and I’d meet him. He was a very nice person.” (Eauclaire, 1992.)
Howard Hughes found a way to cut through whatever security red tape might have existed and two MPs took Pop Chalee to meet him. She ended up creating twelve to thirteen highly detailed murals for the airport. Most remain there to this day.
Pop created murals for Maisel’s Indian Store on Central Avenue in Albuquerque, Marshall Fields in Chicago, the Grand Hotel on Mackinac Island in Michigan, the Santa Fe Railroad Ticket Office, the Santa Fe Airport, the New Mexico State Capitol Building, and Hinkel’s in Santa Fe. She also did illustrations for books.
Perhaps her most famous piece is the Mythical Horse, which she recreated many different ways. Her grandson said, “that Mythical Horse comes from her grandfather, who used to tell the story about how, at night, a horse would fly over the pueblo to make sure all the young kids were being taken care of and kept safe. When she started painting, she decided she would try to capture that image. When you look at the horse, it’s very stylized: the hooves are pointed, almost aerodynamic, and the mane and tail are just flowing,” (Abatemarco, 2018). She was also known for her enchanted forests and painted scenes of Taos Pueblo.
Her paintings were described as ephemeral, magical two-dimensional worlds with elegant large-eyed animals living in harmony in the forest and detailed ceremonial scenes alive with a sense of motion.
“My mission is to help open a road to market for the fine artists among the Indians,” Pop said in an interview early in her career. “For years the Indians have been pushed back and crushed. Now their achievements are being recognized and they are being encouraged in their arts.” (The Lexington Herald, 1941.)
When her second husband Ed said that World War II was won by the Navajo Code Breakers, Pop added, “War! The Indian civilization is the only one that can’t be destroyed by war. That is because our religion is based on things that can’t change—the sun and the moon, the wind and growing things. Wars can come, but the Indian is unshakeable. We have our culture and our love of beauty. We make beauty from the things of the earth.” (Lindeman, 1950.)
During these years that Pop Chalee came into her own as an artist, she was friends with my great-grandmother Pansy Stockton.
Pansy was at the Ceremonial in Gallup, New Mexico when Pop’s 14-year-old son, Jack Hopkins, won first place for his art. At the time, Pansy was based out of Denver, however, she had begun the seasonal habit of spending spring until after Fiesta in Santa Fe and passing through Taos to visit friends before returning to Denver for the winter.
In 1942, Pansy built a kiva with her own hands on one acre of artist Fremont Ellis’ San Sebastian Ranch. Kivas are rounded ceremonial chambers and Pansy took that responsibility seriously.
As reporter Dorothy L. Pillsbury wrote in a feature about Pansy for the Desert Magazine, “The top of her kiva is flat with shallow steps cut from adobe leading to its summit. When she first moved to the San Sebastian, the inhabitants were somewhat startled at sunrise and sunset to hear a rich feminine voice lifted in song to the sun god. Now the neighbors take it all in stride—the outbursts of song from the kiva top and the pounding of Indian drums when Panchita entertains around her campfire on starlit summer nights.” (Pillsbury, 1947.)
Pansy, or Panchita as her friends called her at that time, kept a guestbook for the kiva, christening it on April 21, 1942. The entries make it clear that a visit to Pansy’s kiva was an experience like no other involving dancing, music, and laughter. Some of the Hollywood stars of that day, such as Clara Bow, signed her guestbook and some cartoon artists, such as Sol Baer Fielding, signed as well. Band leader and choral composer Roy Ringwald wrote some lines of music in Pansy’s guestbook.
Pop was a frequent visitor to Pansy’s kiva, before and after it was completed. Pop and their mutual friend Maida Lopez imbedded their footprints into the cement near the fireplace.
Following are three times Pop Chalee signed Pansy’s guestbook:
In August 1942, Pop was one of the distinguished guests at the tea in honor of Pansy Stockton’s exhibit in the Martha White Memorial Gallery (now the School for Advanced Research) in Santa Fe, and she assisted at the tea in honor of Pansy’s opening of twenty-three sun paintings at the gallery in the New Mexico Museum of Art.
Pop and Pansy provided art classes for rehabilitating war soldiers in a collaborative program between the Laboratory of Anthropology and Bruns General Hospital in 1943.
In December 1944, Pop wore the dress and jewelry of Taos while Pansy wore Native American dress from the plains for a talk in Santa Fe. Two years later, the Santa Fe New Mexican reported that they were both at a Surrealist Party at Rancho Ancon where “Pansy Stockton won first prize with a complicated costume that included, in the final count, 72 items.” I’d love to see a photograph of that costume!
Pansy attended the wedding of Pop’s oldest son Jack at St. Francis Cathedral in Santa Fe.
In 1946, they were among the who’s who of Santa Fe artists chosen for a New Mexico Museum of Art show that traveled the country to demonstrate the great art of the southwest. The sun painting selected as Pansy’s piece was one of Ranchos de Taos that I grew up seeing every day called “After the Storm.” The Muncie Evening Express emphasized the uniqueness of the work, stating, “Milkweed, reeds, and a variety of natural fibres have been used in creating a picture evidencing an amazing art.” The Philadelphia Inquirer called Pansy’s work “a curious combination of actual bark, leaves, milkweed and mosses, these forming a richly-toned architectural portrait of the celebrated Ranchos de Taos mission.” The Philadelphia Inquirer also wrote that Pop Chalee’s “Black Forest” was “a creation of genuine charm.” Among the impressive field of artists contributing work to the 1946 traveling show were John Sloan, Randall Davey, Theodore van Soelen, Will Shuster, Gustave Baumann, Fremont Ellis, Jozef and Teresa Bakos, Olive Rush, Alfred and Dorothy Morang, Agnes Tait, Pablita Velarde, and Allan Houser.
In 1947, thanks to a visit to the kiva by Life Magazine photographer W. Eugene Smith (his signature is above Pop’s in the Guestbook entry above), photographs of Pansy and her kiva were in Life Magazine. Here is a link to one of W. Eugene Smith’s photographs, with Pop playing the drum, Pansy playing the guitar, and their friend Maida dancing, that captures some of the spirit of what it was like to visit Panchita’s kiva. Select The LIFE Picture Collection.
When Pop got married a second time to Navajo singer and artist Ed Lee Natay in Chinle, Arizona in September 1947, Pansy was there at the traditional Navajo ceremony. Pop and Ed spent the next two years singing, dancing and acting as masters of ceremonies at the Chicago Railroad Fair Indian Village. Afterward, they toured the country promoting the movie Annie Get Your Gun.
Pop and Pansy did a show together at the Hubbard-Hinkel Gallery in Albuquerque from July 1-7, 1956. In 1962, they were at the Statehood Jamboree at the La Fonda in Santa Fe where Pansy sang like Lillian Russell and won the Best Naughty Lady Award and Pop won the Best Indian costume.
New Mexico Governor Ed Mecham designated March 31 as Pansy Stockton Sunshine Day in the State of New Mexico and announced it on the This Is Your Life television program honoring her life in 1953.
Pop received the Governor’s Award for Excellence and Achievement in the Arts in 1990.
Pansy died February 20, 1972 while visiting her oldest son in Colorado Springs. Her ashes were flown over the Sangre de Cristo mountains. Pop died December 11, 1993 in Santa Fe.
Two flowers, Pop and Pansy, they lived life to its fullest, beautifying the world for many years after they’ve gone.
“You have to walk in beauty,” Pop said. “If you do, then the hurt doesn’t hurt so bad. And beauty comes to you.”
To view Pop Chalee’s work, follow the links in the titles below:
The Mythical Horse
Horse Mural at Albuquerque Sunport
Buffalo Mural at Albuquerque Sunport
Taos Horsetail Dancer at Albuquerque Sunport
Buffalo Dancer at Albuquerque Sunport
Brown Deer at Albuquerque Sunport
Apache Crown Dancer at Albuquerque Sunport
Zuni Masked Dancer at Albuquerque Sunport
Blue Deer at Albuquerque Sunport
RESOURCES:
Abatemarco, Michael. “The enchanted forests of Blue Flower: Pop Chalee.” Santa Fe New Mexican: Pasatiempo. August 17-23, 2018.
Bonte, C.H. “Indian Water Colors Shown at Alliance.” The Philadelphia Inquirer. October 6, 1946.
Cesa, Margaret. The World of Flower Blue, Pop Chalee: An Artistic Biography. Santa Fe: Red Crane Books. 1997.
Cordova, Kathryn M. Concha! Concha Ortiz y Pino: Matriarch of a 300-Year-Old New Mexico Legacy. New Mexico: La Herencia. 2004.
Eauclaire, Sally. “Pop Chalee has a penchant for living life to the fullest.” Santa Fe New Mexican. September 11, 1992.
Hopkins, Selene. “She walked in beauty: Remembering Pop Chalee.” Santa Fe New Mexican. December 17, 1993.
“Indian Artist Bride of Instructor: Navajo Ceremony Performed in Hogan Following Civil Rite in Santa Fe.” Albuquerque Journal. October 3, 1947.
“Introducing: Pop-Chalee.” The Los Angeles Times. March 3, 1940.
Lindeman, Edith. “Movie Critic Now an Indian: It Didn’t Hurt a Bit, She Says.” Richmond Times-Dispatch. April 18, 1950.
Mellott, Wayne. “Unusual Paintings in Exhibit at Ball State.” Muncie Evening Press. December 7, 1946.
Nordhaus, Virginia. “New Now.” Albuquerque Journal. July 1, 1956.
“Pansy is Star of Jamboree.” Santa Fe New Mexican. July 9, 1962.
Pillsbury, Dorothy L. Pillsbury. “Sun Painter of Santa Fe.” Desert Magazine. April 1947.
“Pop Chalee Collection preserved by IAIA.” Taos News. May 24, 2018.
“Pop-Chalee, Taos Artist, Is Named ‘Welcomer; for Santa Fe Trail Premiere.” Albuquerque Journal. November 18, 1940.
“Pop Chalee Will Speak on Indian Culture, Art at Botts Memorial Hall.” Albuquerque Journal. March 9, 1958.
“Santa Feans and Pueblo Neighbors Have Big Part in Gallup Ceremonial Attended by Thousands This Week.” Santa Fe New Mexican. August 26, 1938.
Snyder, Sharon. “Taos Artist Pop Chalee Recalls Manhattan Project.” 1992 Interview. Submitted online July 13, 2020.
Speaker, Helen Shield. “She Breathed the Air of the Gods.” The Desert Magazine. October 1939.
“Untaught Indian Becomes Prize Painter.” St. Louis Post-Dispatch. December 31, 1939.
“Utah Woman Famed as Artist.” The Lexington Herald. March 29, 1941.