Indianapolis exhibit invites visitors to touch sculptures

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) - Michael Naranjo settled on his life's work while he laid in a Japanese hospital. In 1968, the Army soldier had been caught in an ambush, and a hand grenade was hurled toward him in the jungle in Vietnam. Then, darkness.

He asked for some water-based clay. His right hand lay next to him, severely damaged. So with his left, he began to mold and shape the soft wad into an inch worm. He gave it eyes and a mouth. And he was thrilled.

"I knew that at the time, (the sculptures) would get better," said Naranjo, 75.

Across more than 50 years, the sculptor has amassed a body of work that lives in collections at the Vatican and White House, among other places. More than 30 pieces of Naranjo's work are on display through July 26 at the Eiteljorg Museum of American Indians and Western Art. The exhibit - called "Please Touch!" - also is an instruction to visitors to do just that. His current exhibit is the second at the Eiteljorg; the first was in 1992.

After he became blind, Naranjo sought new ways to experience art. As his acclaim rose, so did the sculptor's opportunities to touch great works. He brushed his fingers over the marble eyes of Michelangelo's "David" at the Accademia Gallery in Florence. And he felt the "End of the Trail, the sculpture of a weary Native man and his horse by James Earle Fraser at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City.

Naranjo's instructions to viewers to touch his own art not only turns the accepted protocol of viewing fine art on its ear, it totally transforms the visitor's experience. He doesn't worry if the work is damaged; it can be fixed. What means more to him is that people appreciate the access. Braille labels and audio descriptions accompany the pieces.

"What art really is, I think, is a feeling. And you have to have some sort of feeling within and project it into what you're creating," said Naranjo, who is Tewa from Santa Clara Pueblo in New Mexico.

As Naranjo healed from his injuries, his social worker at the Western Blind Rehabilitation Center in California told him that he had a path to complete college, a journey he'd started before he went to Vietnam. But the artist faced opposition when he expressed his goal to become a sculptor.

As a boy, he wandered through galleries in Taos, New Mexico, stopping at the bronzes. That's what I want to do, he thought. The dream wasn't far-fetched - his mother, Rose Naranjo, was a well-known pottery artist. In college, he took art courses, playing in watercolor and oil painting, but finding more success in sculpture.

Medical experts eventually gave up trying to convince Michael Naranjo to give up on a sculpting career. Naranjo moved to Santa Fe, talked to artists and read books about his craft.

About 10 years into his career, Naranjo sculpted a dancer standing on his toes as hoops encircle his body. As he worked with the clay, he spent time with the woman who would become his wife.

"When I first met Laurie, I was working on this piece," Naranjo said. "She would sit there and read books to me while I was making the sculpture. In the middle of the night, we'd stay up late - we didn't have any kids at the time - just reading stories and listening to her read."

In 1978, he finished the piece and married Laurie Naranjo.

Naranjo has a vivid memory of his great-grandmother. He remembers her dress and how she, a medicine woman, ground corn and carried a baby on her back.

This was the visual he saw before he built "Tender Moment." It's one of the many ideas that come to him through his memories of when he could see. The images live within him as he thinks and dreams about them for days, weeks, even months.

The 1986 sculpture shows a baby reaching toward a mother's face, and her acknowledgment as she turns her head toward the hand. The soft moment reverberates in the smooth curves of their arms and faces.

"All my pieces, I believe, have this gentle motion feeling within them because I think my world is that way. I can't move quickly. I can't run across the room anymore without someone leading me by hand," said Naranjo, who lives in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

A man was gathering wood in the cliff dwellings outside Santa Clara Pueblo when he found a small wounded bird. He nursed it to health, and it grew until its wingspan became longer than the man was tall. That's when he released it into the sky.

Naranjo wrote the backstory to 1998's "Skyward My Friend" himself. It helped the sculptor project himself into the work, find its direction.

"You kind of place yourself in (the sculptures) so that you get a feeling of where they're at with their thinking, what they're doing and it makes it easier to work with the piece as well and maybe put some spirit into it that it needs," he said.

The intricate feathers and faces show the level of detail Naranjo has mastered with his fingers and nails.

"There's very little tools used in working," he said. 'œIf I have a tool in my hand, what am I touching over there? I don't know. What is it doing? How much is it taking away?'ť

The Eiteljorg exhibit shows how much the artist's work has improved over the decades. More fluid lines, fuller figures, and more than one person or animal are part of a single sculpture.

"The Last Dance," from 2012, might show that best. Naranjo built the dancer's figure first and then separately constructed the wings using a thin steel bar that stretched across them.

"I had the wings on the table laid out," he said. "I picked up the wings, flung them up in the air and laid them on his back. ... The clay is soft, so I damaged the head, the arms a little bit, so I had to mend that.

"The very first time he came back in bronze was the first time I saw the whole thing, actually together."

IF YOU GO:

What: "Please Touch! The Sculptures of Michael Naranjo."

When: Open through July 26.

Where: Eiteljorg Museum of American Indians and Western Art.

Cost: $15 adults, $12 seniors (65 and older), $8 youth (5-17). Free for kids 4 and younger. Free for members, Native Americans, Indiana teachers (K-12), and IUPUI students and faculty.

For more information: Visit eiteljorg.org or call 317-636-9378.

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Source: The Indianapolis Star