THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, September 3, 1995 TAG: 9509010070
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY TERESA ANNAS, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: STAFFORD, VA. LENGTH: Long : 150 lines
LAST WEEK, internationally known Native American sculptor Retha Walden Gambaro was carving away on a 2,800-pound chunk of Indiana limestone in her woods-bordered backyard.
``It's a mother and child,'' said Gambaro, who is 77 and has three children of her own. The work will be called ``First Prayer,'' part of her series, ``Attitudes of Prayer.''
She started the series a few years ago, when the issue of prayer in schools was making headlines. Clearly, Gambaro favors tapping into a higher source, whether that source is called God or The Great Spirit.
``I thought, even agnostics pray without realizing it. They might say, `Oh, god, I hope this or that.'
``We all need to have some hold spiritually.''
Since she began making art - in 1969, at age 52 - Gambaro has been a prolific creator. Many of her sculptures have been cast in bronze. She also designs Native American shields and medicine wheels, traditions she learned through her elders.
A major show of these works is on view at The Suffolk Museum. She shares the gallery with her husband of 50 years, Stephen Gambaro, a non-Indian who is devoted to making photographic portraits of the nation's outstanding Native Americans. He is working toward establishing a photographic archive akin to the body of work created by photographer Edward Curtis a century ago.
Today at 2 p.m., the couple will attend a reception for their exhibit. At 3:30 p.m., Stephen Gambaro will speak on Native American culture.
``I have been perhaps more of a student,'' said Stephen Gambaro, 72, the retired director of rehabilitation for D.C.'s human resources department. ``But Retha, as an Indian, does what she thinks and feels as an Indian.''
In other words, he's talking, while she's being.
``She's a real mother earth type,'' he said. ``She has strong spiritual values, and an affinity for the earth, which make her values remain realistic.''
Though their home is like a spiritual retreat - five of their 12 acres have been blessed for meditations, powwows and other sacred practices - the Gambaros are far from cloistered.
From the mid-'70s until 1986, the couple ran Via Gambaro Gallery on Capitol Hill. They exhibited works by many of the nation's most reputable Native American artists, including the late Allan Houser, whose work adorns the United Nations building.
Among Stephen Gambaro's portraits are many Native American artists, whom he considers to be leaders in the rebirth of tribal traditions. A 1983 portrait of Houser presents an especially proud man wearing a Western hat and a scruffy goatee.
Stephen's stepfather was a sculptor who carved Italian marble, and told his stepson that he listened to what the stone told him. He told Houser that story, and the famous sculptor went harrumph.
``My stone speaks Apache,'' Houser retorted.
For most of its tenure, Via Gambaro was Washington's only Native American art gallery.
``Somebody told me recently, an Indian, that the gallery was a home away from home for so many American Indians,'' said Retha. ``It was very informal, a wonderful place to just go and meditate. We had a wonderful garden my husband created.
``And when we showed other sculptors' work, we hid mine.''
Around 1981, the couple spearheaded the creation of the Amerindian Circle, an organization that sponsored one of the largest exhibits ever of contemporary Native American art. The 1982 exhibit at the Kennedy Center, ``The Night of the First Americans,'' led to a major show at the Smithsonian Institution.
Later, Circle members pushed the Smithsonian to plan for an American Indian museum, expected to open at the turn of the century.
Stephen Gambaro is modest about their role. ``We helped raise a little consciousness, I'll say that.''
Recently, his activist bent has been directed at creating a Native American memorial and reburial site in their town - Stafford, just north of Fredericksburg. The site is about two miles from the original home of the Potomac Indians, where mass graves were located by archaeologists in the 1930s.
The idea was to make it more convenient for developers and landowners to report and properly relocate the skeletal remains of Native Americans.
``Most people want to do the decent thing,'' he said, ``if they're given the opportunity.''
The Gambaros call such activism their ``community work.'' Likewise, their art is tied to a respect for community and cultural continuity.
Even a percentage of sales from the show at The Suffolk Museum will benefit the museum itself.
``If we don't help out somehow, how are these art centers going to exist?'' Retha Gambaro said. ``Especially now that federal funding is on the decline.''
In her sculpture, Retha takes on subjects dear to her heart. As the mother of three grown children, she often has portrayed motherhood.
One piece in the Suffolk show, the 1982 ``Spotted Wing,'' is a sentimental image of a young mother caressing her baby. When the work was displayed in the Smithsonian exhibition, Retha would sit in the gallery to watch reactions.
``Inevitably, they called her the Indian madonna.'' She saw men genuflect to her, and women cry.
Animals also are a favorite subject. She portrays them affectionately, often in relation to their family unit. The Suffolk show includes woodchucks, beaver, armadillo, bears, owls, even weasels.
Quotes from notable Native Americans are found through the galleries. From Black Elk: ``One should pay attention to even the smallest crawling creature, for these too may have a valuable lesson to teach us, and even the smallest ant may wish to communicate with a man.''
From Retha: ``Animals have given me comfort and joy since I was about 5 years old. I feel that we are all creatures of the same source. And that if I have what is called a soul, this little cat has one, too. And so do those little bunnies I see out in my woods.''
Retha's formal art training consists of a six-week summer course at the Corcoran Gallery of Art's school in Washington, D.C. The teacher, Austrian sculptor Berthold Schmutzhart, encouraged her and remains her friend.
``You just look at what you see,'' she said. ``As I look at an animal, and I have a piece of clay, it is as though I am stroking that animal. Like stroking the clay into the shape of that animal.''
One commission she was especially pleased about is at Fox-Chase Cancer Research Center in Philadelphia. Her woodchucks are positioned outside the center's entrance.
The center had won a Nobel Prize for research using woodchucks, so they decided to honor the creature for his part - a distinctly Native American notion.
``I think that was so beautiful,'' said Retha, moved. ``Just beautiful.''
From her childhood spent in Oklahoma and Arizona, Retha feels closely connected to nature. She worked on a relative's farm, and went possum hunting at night for meat.
Her philosophy: ``Everything is here to help everything else. If a Native American kills an animal, first they pray for the soul of that animal and give thanks for that life coming into your own, to sustain your own life.''
At age 9, to help the family, she went to work as a maid's maid for a wealthy family. She remembers long days spent scrubbing the grout around hexagonal floor-tiles.
``It was anything but fun. But I do think that maybe being confined at something like that can cause your imagination to grow.'' Later, as she raised her children, she worked as an engineering draftsman.
All of those experiences gave her a strong work ethic. On most days, she is up by 6 a.m., and works until she's exhausted - or uninspired. ``Like somebody said, `My God, you're working so hard.'
``What? This is fun! Before, I am doing what I feel I should be doing. Now, I'm doing what I just love.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color photo
Retha Walden Gambaro's 1990 sculpture ``Buffalo Dancer'' is included
in a show at The Suffolk Museum.
Photo
Stephen and Retha Walden Gambaro will be at the Suffolk Museum at 2
p.m. today for a free public reception. He will speak at 3:30.
KEYWORDS: BIOGRAPHY PROFILE SCULPTOR ARTIST by CNB