A Charlie Willeto sculpture

Charlie Willeto
Diné (Navajo), (1897-1964), untitled, repurposed lumber and pigment, depicting a figure with a single feather atop the head, carved and painted facial features, the hands delineated atop the chest.
height 28in, length 3 3/4in
From 1961 until his death in 1964, Charlie Willeto carved approximately four hundred figures from cottonwood, pine and recycled materials, most ranging in size from twelve to thirty inches.

Illustrated
Smither, John & Stephanie, et. al., Collective Willeto: The Visionary Carvings of a Navajo Artist, 2002, Museum of New Mexico Press, Santa Fe, NM, p. 33

See the accompanying essay by Lee Kogan, curator emerita at the American Folk Art Museum; An Ordered Universe: The Art of Willeto:
"Charlie Willeto's carvings share with the work of twentieth-century self-taught artist-superstars William Edmonson, Bill Traylor, and Martin Ramirez a brilliant economy of expression and iconic power, vitality and energy, a timelessness, and inspiration drawn from deep cultural roots simultaneously personal and universal. Like these artists, Willeto also developed a vocabulary of form and had an extraordinary command of his media. There are additional shared similarities. All began art-making after the age of fifty and their entire oeuvre, as we know it, was created within a few years." Ibid. p.13