Support Independent Arts Journalism As an independent publication, we rely on readers like you to fund our journalism and keep our reporting and criticism free and accessible to all. If you value our coverage and want to support more of it, consider becoming a member today. This article is part of Hyperallergic ’ s 2024 Pride Month series , featuring interviews with art-world queer and trans elders throughout June.
Diné weaver and fiber artist Roy Kady sat down for a video interview wearing a shirt that read “Sheep is life.” Kady is a shepherd and an artist, roles he sees as definitively intertwined. “I am first a shepherd, then art comes with it,” he said.
Kady’s decades-long career has been one of constant learning, and in recent years, teaching. He shares weaving techniques and Diné stories that he says are too often missing from younger generations. Kady spoke to Hyperallergic about Diné conceptions of gender, apprenticeship in his small Arizona town, and being accepted as a gay man in his community.
* * * Hyperallergic: What are your earliest memories of weaving, and how did your mother’s practice influence your own? Roy Kady: My sisters and I grew up in a single-parent household where my mother brought us up, so we were taught everything from building a house to repairing a roof to working under the hood of a vehicle, the sort of things the colonized world would call “man’s work.” We learned inside, too. From washing dishes and getting the hous.