The Sweet Smell of Home: The Life and Art of Leonard F. Chana (review)

The Sweet Smell of Home is a much-needed addition to the literature on O’odham art and culture, most of which has been focused on basket-making. While the aesthetics of O’odham basket design are evident in Leonard F. Chana’s images, the Tohono O’odham artist’s work is beyond the limitations of ethnographic illustration. Chana is not only knowledgeable about the O’odham Himdag (the O’odham Way) but also an eyewitness to social and community events, which consistently inspired his images. At the same time, Chana understands intimately the hardships that have beset generations of O’odham, which he recounts throughout the book, but which is especially poignant in his own personal struggle with alcohol abuse. In fact, Chana devotes a chapter to this difficult stage of his life titled “So I Was Tired of Drinking Anyways.” The chapter is brief, as are all twelve chapters, yet layered with the emotional truth that can only come from knowing the desolation of the spirit firsthand. However, Chana neither preaches nor howls about his struggles and the lessons learned. Rather, his storytelling steadily maintains a pleasant tone, which seems to be due to his connection with the O’odham values and beliefs that subtend his growth as an artist from boyhood to the end of his life.

Arranged and edited by Susan Lobo, a cultural anthropologist currently at the University of Arizona as a Distinguished Visiting Scholar, and Barbara Chana, Leonard’s widow and a licensed abuse therapist serving the American Indian community, The Sweet Smell of Home is a transcript of Leonard’s life-story growing up on the Tohono O’odham reservation in southern Arizona and how his life as an artist emerged organically from this environment. Each chapter is illustrated with the various acrylic and pen-and-ink images that Chana created over his career as a self-taught artist, much of which was done in the form of stippling, which is a way of building an image out of small dots or specks. Chana did this with his penand- ink drawings. His acrylic paintings, on the other hand, were made with conventional brushstrokes, coloring, and shading. What emerged is a body of work that is clearly devoted to the customs and values, not to mention the people, that made up the Indigenous world in which Chana lived and worked. In this way Chana is part of a commonplace tradition in modern Indigenous art. In the case of the O’odham, Chana is a peer to Michael Chiago, another artist who is working on tribally specific themes in southern Arizona. Chiago, like Chana, regularly sells work through Silverbell Trading, which has since moved from its original location next to Li’l Abner’s Steakhouse to its current site on Oracle Road in Tucson.

Despite growing recognition as an artist, Chana never sought the fame or notoriety that is characteristic of the contemporary art world. As Barbara Chana recalls about her husband:

It took some time before he accepted the title [of artist] and then only after people challenged him to value his gift. Leonard stated his inspiration came from his heart, which moved his hands to express his thoughts and feelings, which usually included others—viewing art as more than him. This belief, in my opinion, helped downgrade the false pride and ego that can so easily beset an artist. He had a greater insight of needing to paint and ink a story than the need for recognition.

(xvii–xviii)

One can argue that it is precisely because Chana did not go to art school that his work is bereft of any cynicism. However, it would be unfair to characterize his work as naive. On the contrary, Chana is abundantly aware of the problems and negative forces that threaten the well-being of his...