Waiting for Mutton Stew

Additional Information

Literature:
The Art of Ray Swanson: Celebrating People and Lifestyles, Tom O’Keefe, Old Paint Publishing Company, Carefree, AZ, 1994: p. 92-93.

While many of his contemporaries were examining Native Americans from the 19th century, painter Ray Swanson was more interested in present-day cultures, particularly the Navajo people of Northern Arizona. A stunning example of this contemporary vision of Southwest life can be seen in Waiting for Mutton Stew. “This cooking scene is a common sight at campsites or anytime during the summer months when it is too hot to cook in the hogan,” Swansons writes in The Art of Ray Swanson: Celebrating People and Lifestyles. “The men and women complete the various preparations for the day’s meal. Strips of mutton, meat from an adult sheep, hang to dry like clothes on a line. Mutton is tougher than lamb, but it can be very tasty when cooked with vegetables in a stew pot. Some sheep ribs are also cooked over a wood fire, while dough is prepared for fry bread. Whenever I smell burning juniper wood, it reminds me of a Navajo campsite.”