Sunshine Studio

The Sunshine Studio website features a wealth of antique and contemporary Native American art as well as information about the art and its creators. We specialize in Zuni fetish carvings and Native American jewelry. My wife Challis and I began operating the Sunshine Studio gallery from our Santa Fe, New Mexico home in 1975.

We have included a list of 13 carvers that are in their late twenties to mid forties. Carvers who we think have contributed to further along the fetish dialogue. Most of the carvers have unique styles that they have created on their own or they come from carving families yet they have found a way to set their carvings apart from their carving parents, uncles, aunts and grandparents. It is comforting to know that a 'young one' is stepping up and finding their voice in a medium as old as time itself.

Realistic carvers delight in the literal depiction of animals, they excel in the execution of concrete, minute detail. All the carvers started out learning the traditional approach to carving animals through their family connections. Don Sharp, an administrator with the Federal Young American Conservation Corps, was the first to encourage and promote realistic carving in Zuni.

Zuni fetishes usually depict animals, especially their eyes, claws, teeth, heightened senses and connection with elemental forces. These carvings are meant to evoke animal spirits who are the messengers of the Creator. Zuni fetishes and their power/protection animals also appear in jewelry, for example, the Zuni fetish necklace.