Four Seasons Basket (2006)

Alicia Nelson says, “There are a lot of stories to this basket. The tree of life, from the roots all the way to the tip. Also the four seasons, winter, spring, summer and fall, also the four sacred colors for north, south, east, and west. It was very, very challenging. I started it several times and had to start again to get this basket going. I did it one time and it didn’t turn out the way I was planning, but I tried again, and it came out like this.” Weaving in her signature single-rod technique, Alicia is able to enrich her designs with abundant detail that wouldn’t be possible in a traditional three-rod basket. As the seasons move from spring to winter, her basket masterfully conveys the Diné (Navajo) principle of hózhǫ́ (balance and harmony).