Old Style Chile Racer Kachina by Larry Melendez, Hopi

Old Style Chile Racer Kachina by Larry Melendez, Hopi cotton wood, pigment 8 1/2" high x 2 3/4" wide x 3" deep WINSLOW, Ariz. - When many people think of Kachina dolls, they probably don't look like the kind that Larry Melendez carves. Melendez is an old-style Hopi Kachina doll carver from Sichmovi on Second Mesa. "That's a new term for the Kachina dolls that I do," Melendez said. "The style I do is the old-style from the late 1800s and early 1900s. The style didn't change until the railroad came through the southwest." Melendez said into the mid-80s, carvers only made contemporary dolls. Melendez explained that new style sculptures allow the artist to use their imagination to create life-like dolls with small details, even including carved fingernails. Melendez said his brother, Manual Chavarria Denet, played a huge role in his becoming an old-style Kachina carver. "I was a protégé to my older brother. He was like the Henry Ford of the Kachina doll carver of the old style, he was the