Artist in Residence – Charles Decker

Meet local Sedona artists as they work their magic, painting and sculpting masterpieces. Interact with the artists, ask questions about their work or preferred art medium, learn about art galleries in Sedona, or ask about other local art programs.

Charles Decker

Charles Decker is an Apache artist of the Yavapai-Apache Nation in Arizona, where he is receiving wide recognition for his new approach to rendering canvas art through Oils, Acrylics and Spray Paint. Decker incorporates celestial art motifs with celestial symbols and landscapes to fit in with traditional designs of his Native American World. All of these designs are meticulously hand-made into colorful backgrounds with various brilliant and vibrant colors contrasting the foreground and background. These paintings are very unique with their Apache culture infused. Charles calls this “transformational art”-taking a specific technique and adapting it into a new form.

Charles Decker is self-taught, and comes from a family of artists, both on his mother’s and father’s sides. Charles’ male clan name is “Nagozogen” or “One who marks on the ground people”. Charles’ great great grandfather was Henry Irving, a well noted Apache medicine man who was born in Cibique, Arizona and later grew up in Star Valley east of Payson, Arizona during the mid-1800s to the late 1800s. Henry was known as Deyelleh or “One who dreams”. Charles is now taking the steps by using his painting techniques to tell of his people’s culture in a pleasing manner using contemporary methods to convey his story of a time and place.

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