Charlie began buying every book on Native American art and culture that he could find. He discovered the great bookstore at the Museum of Northern Arizona in Flagstaff, Arizona, as well as, the bookstore at the Southwest Museum in Pasadena, California.
After studying the Hopi, it soon became apparent to Charlie how interrelated the Katsina religion and Hopi arts and culture are. In the mid 1980’s, Charlie began collecting Katsina dolls for their artistic value, the spiritual feeling they convey, and for what they reveal about Hopi culture, history, and the various katsina ceremonies.
In 1992 Charlie and his wife, Donna, decided to move to Santa Fe, New Mexico. Donna is an interior designer with over twenty five years experience in commercial, residential, and hospitality design. Their plan was to use Santa Fe as a base from which to travel the southwest buying the finest native art and selling it to Donna’s clients and galleries in Santa Fe. It was a gradual process, as they began to learn more about pueblo pottery, the various artists, and galleries.
While pursuing their business and personal interest in Native American art over the last several years, Donna and Charlie designed and built an adobe home on twenty acres in the Zuni Mountains near El Morro National Monument. They moved in during the fall of 2001 with their three yellow labs and two cats. The labs are Ramah, Chica, and Tipper. The cats are Austin, a Siamese, and Dallas, a Balinese. They have no children and consider their pets their family, hence the name of their gallery, YELLOW DOG TRADING COMPANY.
Contact
Us:
Charlie and Donna Simmons
Yellow Dog Trading Company
(505) 254-3773
info@yellowdogco.com
