Strausenback As Artist, Part III: Trading Post Murals

This blog is adapted from Chapter 6: “A Lifetime in the Garden” in our book Garden of the Gods Trading Post. This series of three blogs not only expands on the information in our book, but also reproduces the artwork in color since the book was printed in black-and-white.

When Garden of the Gods Trading Post opened in 1929 Charles Strausenback’s skills as an artist were put to good use. He painted a large version of his company logo on the porch façade.

Left, hand tinted postcard showing the porch of the Trading Post in 1929. Right, original artwork sent to the US Copyright Office in 1926 of a Tewa Thunderbird attacking a rattlesnake painted by Charles Strausenback, adapted from a painting by Awa Tsireh. The copyright was granted and this logo was used for Strausenback’s business Garden of the Gods Curio Company and later for the Trading Post. Courtesy Garden of the Gods Trading Post.

He also painted murals on the exterior porch walls depicting Navajo, Hopi, Zuni and Rio Grande Pueblo figures.

*Garden of the Gods Trading Post photographed by the authors in 2019 showing the murals painted on the porch walls.*

These murals were copied from other artist’s work, for example the mural painted by the left side door of a Pueblo woman emerging from a kiva is a copy of a painting by San Ildefonso artist Awa Tsireh, now in the collection of the Firestone Library at Princeton University, https://graphicarts.princeton.edu/2015/08/30/awa-tsireh-1898-1955/.

Additionally the Zuni Shalako figure painted between two windows was copied from a 1900 painting by Mary Wright Gill reproduced in the 23^rd Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology 1901-1902.

The other murals depict a Navajo sandpainting of Yei figures, and a Hopi sunface kachina.

These murals are signed Tong Say Ontya 1929. Evidence suggests this was a name used infrequently by Charles Strausenback on his artwork.

More proof of the use of this pseudonym by Strausenback is this opaque watercolor painting of a Pueblo corn dance signed “Tong Say Ontya 1933.” Below the painted signature is Strausenback’s name and 1933 written in pencil.

Pueblo Corn Dance painting signed “Tong Say Ontya 1933” and also signed in pencil “Strausenback 1933.” (Private Collection)

The painting style is consistent with Strausenback’s as indicated by the below lithograph entitled Corn Dance made by Strausenback in 1939. The litho is nearly identical to the 1933 painting, except for the added background, to indicate they were made by the same artist.

Strausenback’s talent was also utilized on the fireplace constructed in the interior of the trading post. Tiles designed by Awa Tsireh, and made from commercial clay at a factory in Denver were inlaid in the surface and Strausenback painted Navajo Yei figures and a Pueblo cloud design on the front.