Pansy Cornelia Stockton: The Art of Assemblage

Pansy Stockton
at work in her studio

This woman's vision was unique! Pansy Stockton created three-dimensional art pieces using hundreds of varieties of items from nature such as bark, moss, grass, and weeds. She called them her "sun paintings" because the botanical materials she used get their colors from the sun and, when the art pieces are finished, they resemble paintings. 

Pansy was born in El Dorado Springs, Missouri on March 31, 1895, and was raised in Eldorado Springs, Colorado where her parents ran the Grand View Hotel. Always an artist, she was just nine years old when she won her first adult competition with an oil painting however, Pansy not only worked in oil, but watercolor and acrylic as well. She studied the technique that substituted a palette knife in which artists use various tools shaped like knives, rather than brushes, to build up the paint on a canvas or other support. Pansy moved away from painting when she realized that the medium was limiting and that nature offered an endless supply of texture.

Pansy Stockton
Cero Pelon
ca n.d.
Botanical collage on board
4.5 x 3.3 inches

She created her first "sun painting" in 1916 while she was living in Durango, Colorado and sold it to the president of the Colorado Fuel and Iron Company. In her words, "The general effect of sun painting is much like looking out of a window rather than looking into a frame. There is a three dimensional value not found in painted pictures. I consider texture more important than color in getting my effects. All pieces are cemented to a soft paper board and pressed into service with heavy weights. When people ask,'How are your sun paintings made?' I tell them 'a lot of stuff, a little glue, considerable pressure, and a great big lot of imagination." Pansy coined the term "sun painting" because to her, it sounded primitive like sun temple or sand paintings.   

Pansy Stockton
Old Pecos MissionMixed Media Collage
ca. n.d.
11.62 x 15.62 inches

Pansy married Roscoe Stockton, poet, radio announcer, inventor, and teacher, in 1918. They settled in Denver, Colorado where Pansy became a founding member of the Denver Artists Guild in 1928. In 1936, she was adopted into the Oglala Lakota Tribe as a thank you for interceding on their behalf to help preserve their land and rights. She was often seen wearing traditional Lakota tribal wear and Pansy would participate in parades and dances. Her Lakota name, given to her by Native American dancer Charles Eagle Plume, was "Wanashta Wastaywin" (sp?) which means "Flower that Beautifies the Earth."

Pansy Stockton
In her self-made Kiva wearing traditional Lakota dress
ca 1930s
Nancy Bernhardt Collection

By the late 1930s, Pansy spent the bulk of her time in New Mexico and moved permanently to Santa Fe in 1942, where she built an adobe home with a kiva, a sacred building used for spiritual ceremonies, religious rituals and ceremonial preparations by the Pueblo Native Americans. Her substantial collection of Native American memorabilia and dolls were housed there. Pansy's home along Acequia Madre became a salon, where she gave lectures, and entertained visiting dignitaries. She was an integral part of the vibrant arts community in Santa Fe ans she sang at the Santa Fe Opera, served as a judge for the Miss New mexico pageant in 1958.  

Pansy Stockton
Down Mora Way
ca 1960
9 ¼ x 7 ¼ inches
David Cook Galleries

Pansy Stockton was quite well-known in her lifetime. In 1953 she was surprised by Ralph Edwards, host of the live television show "This is Your Life" and during the episode, the Governor Edwin Mechem of New Mexico proclaimed Pansy Stockton Sunshine day on March 31. Written on her plaque: "I hereby proclaim that of the 340 days of New Mexico sunshine each year, the sunniest of them all shall hereafter be known as Pansy Stockton Sunshine Day in New Mexico."

Her work was appreciated nationally and internationally, owned by both Eleanor Roosevelt and the Duke of Windsor. She exhibited in Paris, London, Vienna and New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Oklahoma City, Denver, and Santa Fe. Over the course of nearly sixty years, from 1916 to 1972, she created over one thousand sun paintings, most depicting scenes of her beloved New Mexico. "Ponchita," as she had become known, was an authority on Native American lore and an honorary member of the Sioux. She passed away in February of 1972. 

Pansy Stockton
with finished sun painting and holding botanical materials
Nancy Bernhardt Collection

Sources________________________________________________________________
Pansy Repass Stockton, Kat Bernhardt, https://sweetfootjourneys.com/pansy-repass-stockton/, retrieved July 3, 2019
David Cook Galleries, https://www.davidcookgalleries.com/artist/pansy-stockton, retrieved July 3, 2019
askART, http://www.askart.com/artist/Pansy_Cornelia_Stockton/113295/Pansy_Cornelia_Stockton.aspx, retrieved July 3, 2019
Phil Kovinick and Marian Yoshiki-Kovinick, An Encyclopedia of Women Artists of the American West, University of Texas Press, Austin, 1998, p. 293.