Harry Fonseca

Coyote/Koshare, Four Figures with Melons

Throughout his career, Harry Fonseca (Nisenan) painted the coyote, a trickster character in many Indigenous cultures, as a culturally connected and cosmopolitan inhabitant of the contemporary world. Fonseca’s Coyotes appear as ballerinas, opera characters, San Francisco butch style icons, Nisenan dancers, and even Uncle Sam. In this piece, the coyotes appear in the striped dress of Koshares, ritual Pueblo clowns whose performances impart moral lessons and maintain community balance. These four coyote/Koshare are enjoying giant watermelon slices, perhaps relaxing after a ceremony. They stand against a flattened, dreamy background with a sparkly rainbow and bubblegum-pink, cartoony flowers. Combining sacred dress with glitter, blue jeans and converse sneakers, Coyote/Koshare Four Figures with Melons depicts rich cultural tradition intertwined with an everyday moment of joy.