Ray Goodluck

Yáh áh tééh. That is greetings in my Native language. Hello, my name is Ray Goodluck and I'm from the Navajo Nation. My clan is the " Mud People " and born for the " One who walks around one".
Ray Goodluck draws inspiration from his ancestors and the native wildlife of the West. Growing ... moreYáh áh tééh. That is greetings in my Native language. Hello, my name is Ray Goodluck and I'm from the Navajo Nation. My clan is the " Mud People " and born for the " One who walks around one".
Ray Goodluck draws inspiration from his ancestors and the native wildlife of the West. Growing up as a member of the Navajo Nation in New Mexico, Ray only recently started painting in 2019 and sees the painting process as therapeutic.

Before painting Ray was an ironworker in New York City, where he was the first and only Navajo. In April 2019, Ray was working on the new Raiders stadium in Las Vegas when he was injured on the job site. This injury led to him becoming wheelchair bound, stuck at home, and frustrated with nothing to do but watch TV while focusing on rehabilitation. In May of the same year, his girlfriend saw this frustration and left out a painting set she had got him the previous Christmas in hopes it would give him something to focus his time on and ease his mind.

This is where it all started. First Ray painted a horse, something he had grown up around, and he says “it looked NOTHING like a horse”. He moved on to something else that was special to him, an eagle. Once again “it looked nothing like an eagle”. Then he landed on painting a portrait. Ray says “This one was the most difficult and frustrating, and also the worst of them all by far.” At this point he says he had two choices, give the art set to his kids and focus on getting back to iron working, OR take the challenge as “if it was easy, everyone would be a great artist”.

From that point on, Ray has spent all of his time painting. After focusing his attention on creating the best paintings he can, Ray’s work has now been featured in “Native American Art” magazine, as well as a three-page artist feature in “Western Art Collector” magazine.


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