'Fifth Mesa Spirit' by Jon Lightfoot, 1986, Cherokee, Art Students League, New York, Milan, Tucson, Oil

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Signed lower right, 'Lightfoot' for Jon Lightfoot (Native American, 1939-2018) and dated 1986.

Jon Lightfoot was born in Kansas City, … Read more Signed lower right, 'Lightfoot' for Jon Lightfoot (Native American, 1939-2018) and dated 1986.

Jon Lightfoot was born in Kansas City, Missouri to a Cherokee father and a Swedish mother. He attended grade school on the Cherokee reservation in Oklahoma and high school in Tucson, Arizona. He later moved to New York, where he studied under modernist painter Lowell Nesbitt for three years and attended the Art Students League before studying abroad in Italy at the Milan School of Fine and Applied Arts. After his early studies, Jon lived for twelve years in New York and London, where he worked in theater, dance, and modeling. With classical training in drawing, Jon continued to draw even while acting and dancing in stage productions, often sketching actors and stage tableux while waiting in the wings.

Returning to Tucson in 1971, Lightfoot was a full-time artist by 1974, developing his unique personal style. The artist's interest in Native American themes also led him to Santa Fe, where his work was encouraged and widely collected. He continued to explore his interests in Mexico, living in San Miguel de Allende. He was featured in Art of the West and Southwest Art magazines. See less