The Artist

Michael Chiago, Sr. was born in 1943 in the Kohate Village on the Tohono O’odham reservation.  His tribal lineage is Tohono O’odham, Pima-Maricopa.  The Tohono O’odham reservation is roughly the size of Connecticut with a population of 24,000 as of December, 2000.

Michael is a veteran of the U. S. Marines whose tour of duty included Vietnam. He also began his painting career in the early 70’s.  He is self-taught, although he studied commercial art at Maricopa Community College and worked as a commercial artist.

The welcoming appeal of his colorful paintings reaches far beyond the desert southwest, to portray a time and place that is distinctly the Sonoran Desert.  His work provides a look at the way indigenous people of the Tucson Basin lived in the recent past and how they incorporate the same cultural traditions today. 

Michael’s vivid watercolor paintings from the very small to large murals frequently depicts village dances in front of simple churches, traditional desert farming, and other community events of the tribe known as the “Tohono O’odham” which means “Desert People.”  Familiar desert sights are visible in every painting, including the well-known and revered Baboquivari Mountain in southern Arizona. 

Each work of art is carefully painted with the utmost accuracy, from the stitch marks in basketry to the pottery design and clothing of the villagers.  Brilliant desert skies and cactus in bloom seem almost lifelike.  Michael now creates many one-of-a-kind paintings each year of a culture that remains visible and vibrant to him since his early childhood.

His work generally done in brilliant watercolors hangs all over the world and has graced the pages of magazines such as Time-Life, Readers Digest and Arizona Highways. The most recent work accomplished by Michael are the murals at the Gila River Indian Community’s Huukum Cultural Center.  He has illustrated the children’s book “Sing Down the Rain” (now in its fourth printing) that is based on the Sonoran Desert and its natural beauty.  Other displays can be seen at the Sheraton Wild Horse Pass Resort and Spa on the Gila River Indian reservation, Tucson Botanical Gardens, and Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport.

Michael Chiago, Sr. is a recipient of the prestigious 2006 Arizona Indian Living Treasures Award, plus he was one of the two 2005 Honored Artists of the Pueblo Grande Museum Indian Market which he shared with internationally-known artist, Oreland Joe.