Mike Little Makes a Movie

Several months ago Mike Little stopped by to visit his brother Steven Yazzie, and borrow a camera. Yazzie was still unpacking from a trip to Tucson, but a fancy new Nokia 3.2 MB camera phone was sitting on his table. The phone had been delivered before the trip by PBS (Public Broadcasting Service), and was intended to be used to make a cell-phone movie to be considered as part of a series of autobiographical videos of Native Americans for the 2009 season. According to Mike Little, Yazzie, who has seen success as a visual artist in museum shows and gallery sales around the country, decided to give his younger brother Mike a hand up in the art world by passing on this opportunity for a shot at the big time.

With only a week to figure out how to use the camera phone, write a story, and make the video, Mike set off in his typical fashion-- manic, around the clock work, punctuated by moments of terror, and a cigarette. For Little, the story was obvious. After four years of living in a semi-homeless state after he lost his bearings upon the death of his father, he was finally at home at IN, his studio/gallery on 5th Street. In Gallery is the house with the black and white striped tree that is across the road from local bar The Lost Leaf, and next door to The Long House, home and studio of Mike's other brother Matt Yazzie, lead singer and keyboards for Phoenix jazz-pop band Sonorous, and his wife Lesli Englert. Fifth Street jogs south from McDowell at the store Made, and is now a double row of small studios and galleries that runs for one block. After the new build out of ASU downtown and assorted Biotechs is completed, that south end of the street may be the new front door to the Roosevelt art district. But that's another story.

Mike Little had learned to paint six years ago when he was staying at The House, a notorious white double-decker that has been home, studio, and school to many artists in downtown Phoenix. At the time that Mike was there, Mike Michuta, Melanie Coradi, Robert Anderson and Little's oldest brother Steven Yazzie were painting like mad, learning riffs from each other, and flipping the paintings for short money at the Scottsdale gallery Art One. Mike did framing for everyone, and painted houses to make ends meet. One day, after enduring Mike's attention to his every brush stroke for some hours, Robert Anderson told him,” Mike, you should paint, it's easy. We'll see if Craig (Art One gallery owner Craig Foote) will take them." All four of Little's first paintings sold, and he gave up his day job. At first, painting was just a way for Mike to stay in the studio where he did what he thought was his real art-making, music.
Until recently his myspace page intoned "I paint to make money so I can make music." Art One, with its success at selling work by students and young artists, can certainly skew a young artist's vision to see the practical, that is, commercial end of things.

When Mike's father died, however, painting took on a bigger role. Maybe it was because of all the arguments that led to his inability to hold onto any place or anyone for long, but painting became Little's last companion, along with the music. In his video is a short scene showing Mike scooting down Roosevelt Street on a bike, then stopping behind a building to set up a canvas on two abandoned pallets, followed by a flurry of painting. This vignette seems to have the romantic exaggeration common to music videos, but is actually a rather factual presentation of how he lived during that time.

Last Spring, Mike Little had gotten his studio out of the alleys (by a few feet), and was working in the backyard of a friend's house on Fifth Street. When his friend left, Mike made a stab at taking over the lease by setting up the whole house in freshly made paintings to sell on First Friday. After a week of labor, he got on a bicycle, and peddled to his brother Steve's house.

Mike’s video was deemed a success by the PBS producer, and led to Little making his first trip to New York City to meet some filmmakers who had seen the video, and were interested in his music. While sitting at a restaurant in the city with the producer who had brought him to NYC, Mike met a Museum of Modern Art curator who is putting together an event next Spring at the museum- "Cell-Phone Movie Night at MoMA". Dinner is business in New York, and she was soon enthused with his video, which she chose for the MoMA show. And yes, he did make the rent.

You can see Mike's paintings, and probably hear his music, every First Friday at IN, on Fifth Street. Get a jump on Public Television programming by seeing the video at Mike's myspace page. Apparently, everyone in Chelsea has.

In Gallery
909 N. 5th Street
Phoenix, AZ 85004
Web: myspace.com/defcondeltabonerflex, goto videos
Email: mikelittle49@hotmail.com